ACA Enrollment & Foster Youth Update May 2013  (pdf)

The ACA protects patients and will bring health care coverage to millions of currently uninsured people. In honor of National Foster Care Month, we focus on the benefits for one particular underserved population: foster youth. Our recent Huffington Post blog highlights the obligation that states have to help former foster youth get and keep health coverage, beginning January 1, 2014. With this change, foster youth will get coverage to age 26, just like other young adults currently get through their parents' coverage.

In addition, we wanted to point out some useful resources to help states implement the foster care Medicaid expansion:

American Academy of Pediatrics California, Chapter 2, Pediatric News

Kathleen Hamilton, Director of Sacramento Governemental Affairs, recounts the status of the Healthy Families Program transition after the implementation of Phase 1. Challenges encountered in the first phase affecting children's access to health care provide a cautionary tale as the final stages are implemented.

Download the full article here. 

Wendy Lazarus, Founder and Co-President of The Children's Partnership, releases a statement on behalf of a coalition of leading children's health advocates in California. Despite taking steps in the right direction on Medi-Cal expansion to more than a million Californians, Governor Brown's proposal misses the opportunity to make smart investments in children's health. 

"The Governor’s proposal extends a critical revenue source – the Managed Care Organization assessment – but does not explicitly invest any revenues in 2013-14 and beyond to improve children’s health care, as has been the case historically. A portion of those revenues should address the health care needs of children, which have recently been put at risk through the transition from Healthy Families to Medi-Cal without sufficient planning or investment. 

The Governor also continues pending cuts to payments to Medi-Cal providers – already among the lowest in the nation – that will further undermine access to care for California’s ...