Federal law bars Medicaid recipients from accessing their full federal health benefits while incarcerated. But officials from both parties have pushed for changes to ensure little or no disruption of health benefits for pretrial detainees who have not been convicted of a crime and make up most of the 612,000 people held in America’s county jails. In recent years, officials have increasingly implemented a stopgap measure to help inmates reactivate their Medicaid coverage upon release from jail or prison.