COUNTIES OFTEN GET STUCK PAYING EXPENSIVE MEDICAL BILLS WHILE HOUSING STATE INMATES

Among the few bills vetoed by Gov. Mel Carnahan was Senate Bill 892, which required the state to cover medical bills for prisoners awaiting trials in county jails. The governor said in his veto message that this wasn't affordable if existing state reimbursement for inmate food and lodging is to continue. The governor contends the medical expenses may already be covered under law by the existing payments to counties of $22.50 per day. Carnahan noted that the per diem payments have been raised during his two terms, from $14 per day when he took office in 1993.

The state reimburses counties for prisoner costs retroactive to their arrest if they are convicted and sent to Missouri prisons. The bill's House handler, state Rep. Wayne Crump, D-Potosi, counters that the current per diem was never intended to cover health care, just the room-and-board costs, and that the medical costs are "devastating" to some counties.

Cape Girardeau County has had its woes with expensive bills for medical care for state inmates who are housed here for court appearances and the like. The next legislative session needs to take up this issue and try to resolve it.