Report: States’ Choices Decide if Former Foster Youth Get Healthcare

A little-known Affordable Care Act (ACA) provision has the potential to improve the health of young adults who often have significant health care needs and are more likely to be uninsured than their peers: former foster youth. But a new report finds that, like better-known ACA provisions, states’ implementation decisions will effectively determine whether these youth who have experienced abuse and neglect and spent time in foster care get access to the care they need. The Affordable Care Act and Youth Aging Out of Foster Care: New Opportunities and Strategies for Action recommends specific actions states can take to successfully enroll and cover youth under this provision.

The paper was co-authored by Dina Emam, Research Associate at The Urban Institute, and Olivia Golden, Executive Director of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP). It was commissioned by the State Policy, Advocacy, and Reform Center, an initiative housed at the bipartisan children’s advocacy organization First Focus and funded by two philanthropies with long-standing track records of investment in preventing and effectively responding to child abuse and neglect: the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative.