The Affordable Care Act will give an estimated 4 million people who have spent time in U.S. jails better access to health care. This includes coverage for mental illness and substance-abuse problems that increase the risk for being rearrested, according to new research.

Unlike prisons, the nation's 3,200 local jails house people arrested for misdemeanors or nonviolent crimes. Many are mentally ill or homeless and are quickly released. But without access to health care or treatment, these people are more likely to be rearrested, the study authors noted.

"Health reform gives people with a history of jail time access to continuous health care for the first time ever," the study's lead author, Marsha Regenstein, a professor of health policy at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, said in a university news release. "The hope is that such coverage will help keep individuals and entire communities healthier and reduce the nation's health care costs."

http://consumer.healthday.com/public-health-information-30/health-care-access-and-disparities-news-752/affordable-care-act-boosts-ex-cons-access-to-treatment-685284.html