6th Circuit: OK to ration hepatitis C treatment to prisoners

In a split decision, a panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld Tennessee’s rationing of life-saving hepatitis C drugs to prisoners as constitutional. The 2-1 decision found that officials did not act with deliberate indifference to prisoners’ medical needs and it was reasonable to prioritize the sickest patients for treatment given the Tennessee Department of Correction’s limited resources. In a dissent, U.S. Circuit Judge Ronald Lee Gilman wrote that officials may not refuse to treat a patient with a serious medical need “merely to avoid paying the bill.”