First Focus on Children submitted the following comment to Secretary Xavier Becerra at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in general support of Arizona’s proposal to automatically renew Medicaid coverage for foster youth who have aged out of the system in the state.
Excerpt from the Comment:
An important provision to come out of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was to allow young adults to stay on their parent’s health plan until age 26. This provision alone, however, would’ve left out former foster youth. Unlike other young adults, youth transitioning out of foster care, do not often have family that they can fall back on to help them transition to adulthood and independence. Thankfully, another provision was added to the ACA extending Medicaid to former foster youth, allowing them to retain health coverage through Medicaid until age 26. Unfortunately, several technical errors have meant that the original ACA provision has not worked as intended.