Better For Less. What a concept.

I’ve done some research on the cost of healthcare in California. According to Stanford University, the average is $2,788 per family member annually. Based on numbers from the US Census Bureau, the average family size is 3.14. (Pi, interesting…)

That works out to $888 each per year.

Webster’s defines elderly as “somewhat old, later in life; near or approaching old age but not actually old.” I guess ‘elderly” and “pornography” are alike in that we might not always be able to define them, but we know each when we see it. That said, the average elderly healthcare cost per annum in the Golden State is $4,465, arguably quite a bit higher than the average family member.

Continuing down this yellow brick road, we come to the elderly prison population. The California Department of Corrections, also leaving elderly undefined says they cost $69,000 annually, more than three times the cost of the average inmate who comes in at a real bargain for only $21,000 per year and the reason for this huge difference is healthcare. I suppose hitting people over the head and running like hell with whatever they stole from them is a young-man’s game and keeps them in better shape.

So we spend an additional $48,000 per year for elderly healthcare in our prisons. And apparently pretty lousy healthcare if the prisoners and their advocates are to be believed. To be fair and balanced, I read somewhere that Attorney General Brown thinks it is pretty good. It certainly should be for that kind of money.

This is not a diatribe against taking better care of prisoners than honest people. In fact, I don’t think that happens. I think the medical care is just as hit and miss as it is for people everywhere else in the state. The difference being, of course, that when the taxpayers foot the bill, the costs soar astronomically for the same service. Or, often, for worse service.

One person posting a comment on the Bee’s editorial on the subject yesterday suggested that prisons routinely wait until medical problems become urgent or even emergencies before taking any significant steps to treat the condition. His assertion was anecdotal, but I suspect it is fairly representative. This is tantamount to making visits to the emergency room the norm rather than the exception and of course is the most expensive possible way to provide healthcare or anything else.

One of the ways California will be able to save money and help to bring the budget into line is to provide adequate and efficient healthcare to its inmate population. We shouldn’t allow our desire to add some sort of non-judicial punishment in the form of bad medical care result in an unintended financial burden to the taxpayers. It is unethical treatment for prisoners and it results in additional unnecessary expenses as well.

There are times compassion makes financial sense. This is one of those times.


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Sources of reference:

http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFFacts
http://www.nicic.org/Library/014705
http://www.lao.ca.gov/analysis_2003/crim_justice/cj_04_5240_anl03.htm
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/elderly
http://www.100percentcampaign.org/assets/pdf/fs-healthy-families-050615a.pdf