Health Care Reform For California Prisoners

A few days ago my Mother brought an article to my attention in our local newspaper The Sentinel, about one of our State Senators Michael Rubio, and legislation he introduced aimed at reforming and curtailing some pretty outlandish medical benefits provided to the prisoners of California.

For some of us this will be a pretty ho hum topic, for those of you like myself who are married to a spouse with a congenital issue that has dropped her into the disability bracket of life, it will be anything but. To the group who should find this interesting, I would also add those of you who are now receiving Social Security and Medicare.

Apparently prior to this legislation SB 1079, and until it passes, we the taxpayers of this state have been on the hook for some pretty expensive cosmetic procedures for prisoners that have no life threatening conditions. Shall we start with what I believe to be the most egregious example, the instance that brought attention to this issue? Yes, yes I think I will, because the sooner I get this out, the sooner I can shower and scrub away the film of disgust I'm feeling.

In one of our many prisons here, I think we have more than anywhere else in the country, resides a lovely young murderer trapped in the body of a man. He/she wanted a gender re-assignment surgery, performed at the state's expense, and to be transferred to a female prison. YUCK! Shall we all be thankful just this once that the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco had the good graces to deny this? Yes , oh yes we should.

O.K. I know there are people out there who do feel as though they were assigned the wrong plumbing when they were constructed in the womb, I totally get it, and feel for those who go through life wondering what they really are. If you're a free man/woman and wish to undergo that mutilation be my guest,  but I'll be God damned if I'm going to help pay for that mess.

Among the other treatments that our incarcerated are allowed to receive are: acupuncture, vasectomies, tattoo removal, cosmetic surgeries of all types, breast augmentation.... Excuse me but if I or my wife want any of those procedures,( I don't need boobs, and she doesn't need a vasectomy) it would cost me tens of thousands of dollars, if not hundreds of thousands. And that's AFTER Medicare, IF they would have paid anything at all because for the most part these are purely elective surgeries addressing no life threatening condition.

On top of this, and not addressed in SB1079, is the fact that when a prisoner becomes ill, our prison medical teams and outside hospitals who provide treatment are compelled to provide Brand Name Pharmaceuticals exclusively. The only exception to this rule is when the brand name is no longer in production. Those of us out there that spend several hundred dollars each month on generic maintenance drugs for our loved ones should really like that, right? And why are pharmaceuticals not included?
Is it because the doctors lobby in Suckramento isn't as strong as the pharmy boys? H'mmm.

Reality in California is, if you need a medical procedure done on the cheap (I mean free), so that you can avoid medical bankruptcy; commit a crime. But do the paperwork quickly, due to our prison overcrowding, if the crime you commit isn't that serious a felony you won't be behind bars long enough to receive that vasectomy and new boobs you so desperately desire.