Sunday, March 27, 2011

Health Care Needs of Youth "Aging Out" of Foster Care


Did you know that:
  • Each year 26,000 youth emancipate from foster care on their 18th birthday and often lose critical Medicaid health coverage?
  • Former foster youth experience Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder at six times the rate of their peers in the general population, and twice the rate of veterans returning from war?
  • Only 57% of former foster youth have health coverage at ages 23 and 24 --- as compared to 78% percent of their same-age peers without a foster care history?

Beginning January 2014, Medicaid eligibility will be extended to cover children formerly in foster care who are under the age of 26.

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