As most know, America's young adults are now able to stay on their parents' health care plans until age 26, thanks to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). However, what about those youths who do not have parents, who do not have families, who do not have any support system at all?
I'm talking about the 25,000 youths in foster care who age out of the system at the age of 18 every year, with nobody left to lean upon.
It used to be that such teenagers would largely be forced to figure things out on their own, often with dire results. See, while The Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 gave states the option to extend Medicaid coverage to the age of 21 for those youths aging out of the foster care system, not enough states did so.
Now, thanks to the ACA, these young adults are guaranteed Medicaid coverage until the age of 26, something that is saving an extremely vulnerable population.
"These young adults have high rates of being uninsured and often have complex medical and behavioral health care needs," said National Association of Social Workers Senior Practice Associate, Stacy Collins.
And the amazing thing about this new provision is that it will retroactively provide Medicaid coverage to any youth who aged out of the foster care system between 2007 and 2013, providing health care to
an estimated 180,000 young adults who had been left out in the cold.
Shadi Houshyar, Vice President of Child Welfare Policy at first Focus in Washington, D.C., addressed the ethical imperative the ACA is now addressing:
"It's a time of real transition for foster youth when when they age out. We certainly don't abandon our own children, and we wouldn't expect to do that for foster youth either. Providing them with health care is an important part of providing needed support as they transition into adulthood."
Indeed, if it were up to past policies and/or the GOP, these youth would continue to be largely abandoned by the health care industry.
Thanks to the ACA, that is no longer the case.
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David Harris-Gershon is author of the memoir What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?, just out from Oneworld Publications.