policy-ish

Former Foster Care Youth Get

Help Paying For Health Care
June 20, 2014 12:39 PM ET
by NICHOLAS ST. FLEUR
iStockphoto
When Joseph Hill turned 21, he went from being
homeless to being homeless and uninsured.
Hill grew up in foster care. He entered the system
when he was 3 months old, and lived in 10 different
foster homes in San Diego. At 19, he aged out of
foster care and faced an abrupt transition into
adulthood.
At first he received health insurance under Medi-Cal,
California's version of Medicaid. But those benefits
disappeared when he turned 21.
Back then, Hill needed new prescription glasses so he
could drive to work and see the board at school.
Losing medical coverage meant spending money that
he did not have.
"It felt like a low blow it cost like $400," Hill says of
paying out of pocket for his glasses. "If I had
coverage, I could have put that $400 to groceries."
Courtesy of Joseph Hill
But now, because of a little-known
provision in the Affordable Care Act,
Hill and other former foster youth can
get free health care under Medicaid
until age 26, regardless of their
income. In some states, coverage
includes free vision and dental care.
The new provision mirrors a similar
Medicaid expansion granted to young adults on their
parents' insurance.
About 55,000 former foster youth are expected to take
advantage of the Medicaid expansion this year, and
that number is predicted to increase by 2017 to as
many as 74,000, according to the Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services.
This coverage can be lifesaving, because young adults
who grew up in foster care are at higher risk of mental
health issues, post-traumatic stress and chronic
medical conditions than their peers. And before the
change in the law, in many states, former foster youth
would lose access to Medicaid services as early as
age 18.
"These are kids who have not had an easy life," Tricia
Brooks, senior research fellow at the Georgetown
Center for Children and Families in Washington D.C.,
tells Shots. "There's definitely a higher need for
physical and mental health services among this
population."
Brooks is an advocate for the expanded coverage, but
she says the change does not come without hiccups.
Although state governments must cover youth who age
out of the foster care system in their own states,
Brooks says state governments are not required to
extend coverage to former foster youth who aged out
in a different state.
The change also comes with challenges. Finding and
notifying eligible members of this notoriously hard-to-
reach demographic is the biggest, says Fatima
Morales of Children Now, a California-based children's
health advocacy group. Her organization's new
campaign, Coveredtil26, aims to inform California's
estimated 27,000 former foster youth, like Hill, about
their new health care eligibility and ease their transition
into adulthood.
Hill, who is now 23 and covered under Medi-Cal, felt
the provision's effects firsthand during a recent trip to
the eyeglass store.
"I got a free pair and a backup in case they break," he
says. "And I didn't have to pay a cent."
foster care affordable care act medicaid
health insurance