Foster Care & Extended Foster Care
Medi-Cal for Former Foster Youth - Progress!
The Youth Law Center, along with ChildrenNOW and NHeLP, has been working to ensure implementation of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act that require states to provide health care coverage up to age 26 for youth who were in foster care on their 18th birthday and were enrolled in Medicaid while in foster care. The most recent data from the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) show increasing numbers of young adults on Medi-Cal in the former foster youth aid code (4M). As of February, 2016 the number of young adults in 4M was over 14,700. Additional former foster youth may be in other aid codes, for example those linked to CalWORKs or SSI. We are very gratified to see such a progressive increase in young adults covered as a result of the Affordable Care Act provision for former foster youth.