This is one of the best arguments for Medicaid expansion you
probably never heard before.
Police Chief John King on Tuesday called for the Utah Legislature to accept federal funds to extend health insurance for thousands more state residents to prevent future crime, as well as save money. […]
"I'm not here as an expert on health care policy," King said at a news conference.
But as a law enforcement officer, the chief—who stressed that he and Fight Crime: Invest in Kids are not equating mental illness with criminality—said he knows the toll that mental illness, behavior disorders and substance abuse can take.
"It's a smart move," King said of expanding coverage.
Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank agrees. "Expansion of mental health treatment in any arena helps to reduce criminal activity and recidivism," he said. That's the message from the national cops organization, Fight Crime: Invest in Kids which issued a Utah-based report detailing how "some of the more than 1,200 deaths from car accidents, drug overdoes, suicides and homicide that occur in the state each year could be prevented by effective treatment of substance abuse and behavior disorders." The link with children is clear: parents with these illnesses who have access to medical care will do a better job raising their kids, and their kids will have a better chance of being healthy now and growing into healthy adulthood.
That's an argument Republican Gov. Gary Herbert hopes will sway the Republican legislature, which has until July 31 to consider his Healthy Utah Medicaid expansion plan, which includes mental health coverage. The legislature isn't Herbert's only hurdle. He wants a work requirement included in his plan and that would require a federal waiver. The Obama administration has already rejected that idea.