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Portability
Upon entering a jail or a prison, most inmates are
disenrolled from Medicaid after the first month of incarceration.

Many of these individuals serve short sentences and become Medicaid-eligible upon release,
but few states have mechanisms to assure appropriate re-enrollment.
(see "Ethical Issues")
Portability refers to the ability to move from one job to another,
or one state to another, and retain insurance coverage.

This is an important consideration in health care. Without portability, millions of Americans would find themselves no longer covered for certain medical procedures. This is often the case when people become unemployed and are no longer insured through their employer. The U.S. has a plan for continuation of coverage. The plan-- COBRA-- allows certain employees and dependents, who would otherwise lose health insurance coverage through their employer's plan, to temporarily continue their current coverage.

In cases where insurance is not portable,
people may have difficulty regaining insured status.

Even if they can get insurance again,
some people face higher premiums and less coverage.

That's why the T.V. commercials say:
"Your costs never go up; Your benefits never go down!"

Portability is one of the considerations in the
Proposed Health Plans that you will read about later...
(See "Proposed Solutions")
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