The Affordable Care Act: Good News for Former Foster Youth

Last week, the United States Supreme Court found the Affordable Care Act to be constitutional. The decision was cause for much dissent around the country. Many people celebrated the ruling. Many others expressed their anger and dismay.

People can have a legitimate disagreement about the wisdom of the health care reform law. The finding of the Supreme Court will no doubt be bounced around in the presidential election debates.

What I hope would be neither partisan nor divisive is one small but important provision: because of the Act, former foster youth may continue to have Medicaid coverage until they turn 26.

Why does this matter?

These are young people for whom we -- and by this I mean all of civil society -- have taken responsibility. They have been removed from their homes primarily because they could no longer live there safely. Some are fortunate enough to find a permanent, loving home where they can thrive. But others are not: they grow up in foster care or group homes.

Every year, some 26,000 young people who live in foster homes or group homes turn 18 (or in some states, 21) and "age out" of the system. Overnight, crucial support vanishes. Gone is the financial support paid to their foster parents or group homes on their behalf. Gone is any consistent, responsible adult presence or guidance. Gone is their health care coverage.

These youth face incredibly long odds if they have to try and succeed on their own during their late teens and early 20s. The label "former foster youth" makes it hard for them to get jobs or rent apartments. For them, there is a high risk of becoming homeless. We know these young people have a low rate of college entry, and even if they are admitted to college, many do not complete a degree.

It is both compassionate and less expensive for taxpayers to ensure that young adults who grew up in foster care have some basic support during this crucial formative period. One key to this support is health care coverage.

I am no expert in the ins and outs of health care reform. I can see why reasonable minds differ on some provisions of the law. But not when it comes to former foster youth, who desperately want to succeed, and who need care and support that their families are not in a position to provide.

 

Follow Michael Piraino on Twitter: www.twitter.com/CASAforChildren

Comments

[Bess Barnett Gleason]

04:05 AM on 07/21/2012

Is this really "Obama Care" or "Obama trying to look like he cares"? Sounds good but nothing he does is for the true good of anyone but himself. Government needs to stop "talking" about everything they are going to do for those in need and start doing it. No reason why all the money they throw around could not be put into programs and services helping those who are againg out of the foster care system with transitioning into the real world; Young adults who spent a part of or an entire part of their childhood in foster care have the same potential to succeed and never asked to be where they are at. College scholarships abound, they just need to be point toward them; The high number who do not succeed at obtaining college degrees don't need constant condemation or labeling put on them; What they need is the enouragment and opportunity to learn how to believe in themselves and learn how to have hope and endure. The "powers that be" need to quit labeling people who were not born with a silver spoon in their mouth and instead provide them with the resoures needed to succeed, and most will.

[DwightMann]

01:11 PM on 07/05/2012

When obamma promised that those earning less than $250k/ year would not have a tax increase, I thought I would be getting health care coverage paid for by somebody else. Now that this passed, I realize that I am the "someone" that gets to pay for anothers health care.

[Bevin Theodore]

09:41 AM on 07/05/2012

This exhibit sounds like an interesting look at the struggles of foster care youth who are about to be on their own: http://www.kidspeace.org/blog.aspx?id=3813&blogid=104

[Aradia999]

05:42 PM on 07/03/2012

I spent a good many years working with youth in the foster care and juvenile justice system. I stay in touch with quite a few of them 20 years later; some of them have done well, others not so well. A few of them ended up in in prison or the grave, but it was a difficult and frustrating journey for the others to find their own place in the world, and how wonderful for those that did. I see possibility and opportunity for every community to step up to ensure our youth have a sense of safety, responsibility and purpose by seeing them as resources instead of deficits. This access to health insurance is something long overdue for those youth living on the fringe.

[elizabethhanc]

05:18 PM on 07/03/2012

Bad news for us who make too much to get medicaid and too little to have any extra to buy health insurance but I don't go to doctor's and hospitals anyway.....

[leenie56]

05:49 PM on 07/03/2012

well Eliz get ready to earn less because sound like you may fall into the bracket of people paying this new Tax/penalty that comes with Obama care. Then all the folks who' s states will lose their medicaid will be forced to move to the states that plan too keep them. Sad how so few real can;t see how this b healthcare bill only effects around 60 % of the total population. This saying the bill helps keep these children on health insurance that is if they don't just leave or the people who have been fostering can't afford to add them or if those peple actually had health insurance them self.

[OneSimpleRon]

12:16 PM on 07/07/2012

Hello! My name is Ron (@OneSimpleRon on Twitter), and I am an 18 year old male in foster care. When I graduate high school, I will have no way to afford insurance, and I am thankful that this healthcare law was passed.

[hnnbar]

05:00 PM on 07/03/2012

Every year, some 26,000 young people who live in foster homes or group homes turn 18 (or in some states, 21) and "age out" of the system. Not to mention to 50% plus divorce rate. Is this Romney's ideal of "one woman one man marriage" or does he just not see reality.

[DwightMann]

01:05 PM on 07/05/2012

How is Romney to blame for children being born out of marriage. The groups with the highest rates of single parent households are also most likely to vote for obamma. They must buy into obammas "blame somebody else for your mistakes" game.

[hnnbar]

06:57 PM on 07/05/2012

The 50% + hetrosexual divorce rate is not "children being born out of marriage. Common sense will tell that the majority will always have the higher stats.

[Bess Barnett Gleason]

03:51 AM on 07/21/2012

The 50% divorce rate is seen in all segments of society, it is not limited to one class of society and has noting to do with youth 'again out" of the system.

[douttfire]

04:44 PM on 07/03/2012

65% of our foster children wind up homeless. It is a sad statistic. Watch the documentary "From Place to Place" to see some of what happens when our kids "age out" with no safety net, no anchor.

[kmchafin]

04:20 AM on 07/04/2012

I have been a foster parent (with 2 states at the same time) for 17 years. I had 4 kids and managed to negotiate wih the state to continue them in school and not "age out" but after the first one successfully graduated college at age 17 , th state of Arizona changed their mind and aged ot the other 3 kids (thee state was runnning out of funds). The one who was allowed to stay longer on the program did far far better, and the other 3 did not get the chance for college as the 1st kid did. First kid has college and works a great job, next two barely made it through high school, and the 4th we have had move back with us and she is back into college. Ageing out forces the kids to get their own places, get jobs (age 18) when they are not ready, and are emotionally "younger" than thier counterparts...so they fail and end on the street. it's because of the broken system. These kids need just a few more short years on foster care , and it's all the difference in a successful outcome.

[LeftRight]

10:04 AM on 07/08/2012

Thankfully I was never a foster kid, but when I turned 18 I had the same problem. Luckily the military was there to give me those few more years. Of course, at that time, we weren't fighting any wars.....

Now I am a foster father, and you're right, most of these kids are taken from their homes for good reasons, and then basically forgotten about! We've had to fight against the caseworker for our current kids for their mother to actually get the visitations she's supposed to get!!!

[blindfaith7580]

04:41 PM on 07/03/2012

It's great that foster children can now have medical coverage until they are twenty six, but I know a single mother, working at a fast food restaurant, lost her home and everything. Three children with no child support coming in. She had Medicade on two of the children for 10mt., when she received a letter that they were cancelled because she failed to send a paper in. She does not qualify for food stamps although I'm pretty sure that the 49 millon on food stamps in America don't all need them. Over the last eight months I have kept an eye on her, and I know she has applied again, over, and over, and over again. She has called numerous times as well as going to the case manager. They say they have all the paperwork. Case workers change like the wind. To this date we have a nine yr. old, and a fourteen year old with multiple pediatric specialist uninsured.You think Big Government is the answer. They can not get it right in a simple situation like this.. If they can't handle a simple issue like this, how are they going to manage 350million people with Health Care. They'er not!!!!!!!!!! Every place you go now the institutions don't have enough staff to do their job now, and we just dropped @ was that 30 or 50million into the pot. It depends on the stats you read. Only a plankton would see any possibility of this working.

[Calisa Brooks]

04:00 PM on 07/03/2012

I agree with the president, I was a former foster youth that grew out the system. I had a 8 month old daughter and just started college. I aged out and the only thing they did was give me 38.00 and told me to have a nice life. Lots of friends that grew up in the foster system with me, 20% of them became stable and the rest became homeless or they just give up on life itself. If we care so much about our children, then why not try to help them through the rough early stages of adulthood do they can find their way. Wish someone had did it for me.....

[javagirl023]

04:42 PM on 07/03/2012

I hope you have found peace and stability, thank you for sharing your story.

[kmchafin]

04:24 AM on 07/04/2012

Thank you Calisa...Your story may help other foster kids in the program now. I hope you are well now and my thoughts are with you.

[Suamhirs Rivera]

03:00 PM on 07/03/2012

Once I said to Michael. Us foster youth are not in foster care, or spend time in foster care. We are in a battle, and it is hardest battle I fought. Foster care means that you are supposed to be take care of and have a better outcome. But the system fail us. WE DO NOT WANT TO BE TAX TAKERS, WE WANT TO BE TAX PAYERS. But when you are barely our of foster care without a penny in your packets and trying to find where to live it is really hard. I have a pre-existent medical condition and since I turned 21 (a year ago) it has been sooo hard to get medical insurance through my job. Research have shown that for every dollar that a local, state or federal government invest in youth, thy will get back 3.26$, meaning they will be making 2.26$ in profit.

[Leonor Arango]

02:27 PM on 07/03/2012

This is good and factual. I have done years of resrearch, and this ex foster child and I pray for children in system. It is overwhelmed, but much of the tragidies...
Happen with in the system. Most I know are not aware, we handed contract out the system. Here we have 5 contracts
These children with no fault of there own go through so much abuse
IT IS OUR DUTY TO MAKE. SURE ALL. CHILDREN ARE SAFE AND FEEL SAFE
IT TAKE''S A Village quote Mrs. Clinton. Teens
n should . with a trade
god bless I wil not giv

[Bevin Theodore]

02:04 PM on 07/03/2012

Foster care children need people looking out for them. Read this story of a 78-year-old man who was in care as a child and is grateful for how his life turned out as a result: http://www.kidspeace.org/blog.aspx?id=3810&blogid=104