Medicaid and Foster Care: Transition Youth

Medicaid and Foster Care: Transition Youth

            Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (PPACA) already allows youth, up to 26, to stay on their parents insurance. That is all good and well but what happens to youth that transition out of the foster care system. How does PPACA affect them? In general, these youth are covered by their state under the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT) program through the age of 21 but after 21 they lose this coverage.

            On January 1st, 2014, PPACA changed the rules for youth transitioning out of foster care. Now, former foster care youth who are under age 26 and have aged out of the system automatically gained coverage. States are required to extend Medicaid coverage to youth who are in foster care and enrolled in Medicaid as of their 18th birthday, or those who were enrolled in Medicaid when they aged out of the system. This also applies to states that did not opt for Medicaid expansion. It is a good step in covering people who need it. About 55,000 youth are expected to use the new rules on eligibility in 2014, while growing to 74,000 by 2017.    

http://www.openminds.com/email/042214-foster-age-out.htm

Zack Karenchak

The Youth Coalition Board joined together once again last weekend (April 26th-27th) in Camp Hill. We saw some new faces in the mix, as well as some long standing members. There were youth present from several counties including Dauphin, Erie, Allegheny, Greene, Luzerne, Cumberland, Philadelphia, Montgomery, McKean, Clinton, and York. The event was facilitated by two highly skilled and energetic individuals, Ieshia Nelson and Nick Palazzolo from the Temple Collaborative. They did a wonderful job of keeping everyone engaged and making sure the event was a success!

Discussion topics:
• Identifying skills and strengths members bring to the group
• Reviewing available resources throughout different counties
• Improving youth participation at County Leadership Team meetings
• Developing community outreach strategies.

The youth got a chance to put on their super hero capes and explore the "Superpowers of Youth" in an activity lead by Nick. We also spent some time laying the ground work for the Youth Coalition Board by exploring our principal belief of "equal voice and partnership" and how we plan to implement that throughout Pennsylvania. As the weekend came to a close, we had a room full of youth who smelled like Play-Dough and may have had a little too much chocolate, but were all super excited to put on their advocacy hats and make a difference in their communities! The Youth Coalition Board will meet again on June 22nd in State College to discuss our next steps.

Amber Myers
Youth Involvement Specialist