Gov. Pete Ricketts said today that federal attention to the coronavirus means part of Nebraska’s Medicaid expansion plan may be delayed by six months. And he and Corrections Director Scott Frakes argued against early release of prisoners to reduce potential infections. Latest news: netNebraska.org/coronavirus

The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services announced Friday that because of the coronavirus, the federal government would not be able to approve Nebraska’s Medicaid expansion plans by the scheduled Oct. 1 startup date. In his daily coronavirus update, Gov. Pete Ricketts said the program would still start as scheduled. But he said part of it would be delayed for some people.

“We are going to be going forward with Medicaid expansion. We will start taking applications August 1, we will have that program in place October 1, but it will only be the basic package and not the prime package, except for people who are newly eligible. 19 and 20-year-olds, pregnant women and medically frail people who will be able to get that prime package. Everybody else will start with a base package,” Ricketts said.

Prime coverage refers to vision, dental, and over-the-counter medication coverage. To be eligible for that, new Medicaid recipients, other than those in the groups Ricketts mentioned, would have to select a primary care provider, complete an annual heath visit and participate in case management the first year; after that, they’d have to be working, going to school, or caring for a relative.

Also at Ricketts’ news conference, Corrections Director Scott Frakes said there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 among inmates, and only one staff member has tested positive. Frakes gave the prison system high marks.

“We’ve done an exceptional job of keeping COVID-19 out of our prisons, and we’re not going to let up on our efforts,”Frakes said.

Nebraska’s prisons hold about 60 percent more inmates than they were designed for. But Ricketts said it’s “irresponsible” to argue some prisoners should be released early to lessen the threat of infection. Ricketts said inmates released early could reoffend or become infected themselves and infect others. And he also argued against releasing nonviolent inmates. He said about 3,500 inmates would be considered violent, and about 2,000 would be considered nonviolent.

“In that nonviolent category, we still have very serious offenses like violating protection orders and blackmail and so forth. And of the drug offenders that would be considered that nonviolent area, the average number of convictions they have is 19. So again, these are people who have had serious offenses and are in our correction system for a reason,” he said.

And Frakes offered what he said was the strongest argument against early releases.

“This is not a good time to be coming out of prison. I can offer climate controlled housing, food, clothing, recreation and work opportunities, good health care, programming and a relatively safe setting. And unfortunately right now for many people that leave prison, they're going to be very challenged to find those things,” he said.

The ACLU has sued asking for the prisons’ pandemic response plans to be made public. Frakes says the plans have to be kept confidential for security reasons.Latest news: netNebraska.org/coronavirus