Are inmates eligible for Medicaid?

Medicaid, the joint federal-state health care program covering about 70 million Americans, is the primary means through which states and localities provide health care access to vulnerable populations. But while jurisdictions have never been precluded by inmates’ incarceration status from enrolling them in Medicaid, such coverage has historically been unavailable to most jail and prison inmates because, as non-disabled adults without dependent children, they did not meet many states’ eligibility criteria.