This month marks the third anniversary since the Affordable Care Act was signed into law by President Barack Obama. Despite the ongoing partisan rancor surrounding the bill’s implementation, there is at least one provision Congress should be able to find common ground around: making sure we protect the ability of young adults to remain on their parents’ health care plans until they reach age 26. Millions of young adults already are benefiting from this provision as they work to get themselves established either through continuing their educations or landing a job.
But when it comes to the thousands of foster youth who age out of the foster-care system each year, the guarantee of affordable health insurance until they are able to get on their feet with gainful employment could be in jeopardy if the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid doesn’t take the broadest interpretation of the law and ensure all states cover former foster youth until age 26.
Almost 30,000 young people age out of foster care every year, having never been adopted or reunified with their birth parents. The fact that they age out is our failure as a government, and we should not compound that problem by inadvertently denying them access to the same health care opportunities as any other young adult would receive under the Affordable Care Act.
Foster youth who age out are statistically more likely to experience homelessness and incarceration and to lack health care. They face higher rates of physical and mental health challenges, sometimes due in part to trauma early in life. These facts make it all the more important that we guarantee all eligible foster-care alumni access to quality health coverage.
Foster youth shouldn’t be treated any differently as they transition from the foster-care system into adulthood — but if we aren’t careful, that’s exactly what could happen.
The CMS proposed regulation requires states to enroll eligible foster youth in Medicaid to age 26 only if they remain living in the state where they were in foster care and enrolled in Medicaid. Although the draft regulation provides states with the option of extending Medicaid to youth who move to their state, it does not require it. That may leave foster youth in limbo when it comes to their ability to access these benefits under the Affordable Care Act.
While CMS should be applauded for striving to achieve health parity for foster youth, requiring those youth to remain living in the state where they were in foster care presents an unnecessary burden on the backs of those already carrying the heaviest load.
Forcing parents to pay for and keep their adult children on their healthcare plans makes them unable to save for their retirement. These adult children live at home, many of them not working, forcing their parents to foot the bill for food, clothing and shelter costs, too.
Don’t pro create if you don’t give a shit about their well being forever. If you took care of them well enough before 26 they would have their own job with benefits anyways. Not to mention tons of companies are paying benefits for their employees because of the affordable care act so maybe you just need to work for a less stingy company. And your comment is altogether irrelevant and honestly a little rude since you came to a place where people post about trying to help children with no support to complain that you don’t want to take care of your child.
Terri~
No one is forcing parents to keep kids on their health insurance…it is voluntary! Also most kids when they go out on their own do not have jobs that pay enough to cover food, shelter, insurance, etc.
Besides if you read the article it is about FOSTER YOUTH aging out of care and completely on their own with no family connection. Were YOU ready to fully support yourself on your own when you turned 18 or even 21 and not have a family to fall back on for help if you needed it??? If you cannot answer yes then how do you expect youth againg out of care to do it!!
I am sooo glad you posted this! I have been trying to contact state officials and figure out IF/when CA will honor the affordable care act for foster youth. When I first started researching an article I found did say that CA would honor it in 2014 but I have been without health care and under 26 for 2 years now so I was LIVID when I turned 21 and found out I was yet again being screwed by the system.
I read half and was too excited to see the support for this issue and posted. Having read it all, I moved from CA to TX 3 months ago and have also worried about how I would probably not see my insurance again even in 2014 because I am not in CA any longer. However, I was from Los Angeles and had to resort to unspeakable things to keep myself off of the streets when I turned 18 because a 1 bedroom starts at $1500 where I’m from. Now that I’m in Austin, for the first time I can actually afford the roof over my head. But it’s a daily source of stress that if I get hurt I could end up with like $100,000 of debt for an ER visit or something because I didn’t have health care. And on top of that I need therapy and I much prefer to be able to get my medical and dental check ups… I also found a lump about a month ago and can’t go to the doctor to figure out what it is. But a doctor I met at a coffee shop and made answer questions said I really needed to get the lump checked out… Anyways. I’m off topic. Additionally, I believe it’s supposed to cause me to incur extra taxes and stuff that I am not now providing my own insurance so there is yet another reason this blows.
Thank you for posting this. Trying to get health insurance while aging out of foster care was difficult and I was never able to obtain it waiting for Bush to sign off on the paperwork. Education and awareness is the key to making change. Without it we don’t grow and in the process people could be dying.