In a letter to our partners and friends, Vikki Wachino, COCHS CEO, stresses that the Reentry Act would strengthen Medicaid’s role and allow it to support reentry services as an essential component of an overall public health strategy to reduce transmission of the coronavirus and mitigate future COVID surges. Under current law, Medicaid does not cover health services when people are incarcerated. Incarcerated people are considered “inmates of a public institution” and barred from receiving Medicaid benefits, even though most detained individuals are Medicaid eligible.