Support Access to Comprehensive, Coordinated Health Care

What Can Policymakers Do?

• Extend Medicaid to former foster youth up to age 21 through annual automatic enrollment and re-enrollment.  There has been a decrease in the percentage of young people who have transitioned out of foster care who have health insurance.  Extending care with automatic enrollment until youth turn 21 allows for young people to maintain consistent health services and increases the likelihood that youth will successfully transition into adulthood. Young people who are in the care of the state of Connecticut on their 18^th birthday are eligible for Medicaid until they turn 21.
• Ensure that health care services for young people are comprehensive and coordinated upon entering foster care and throughout the time that they are in care. Ensure that plans are in place to continue health care after young people transition out of foster care and that services are provided to youth in a seamless way. Michigan’s child welfare system automatically transfers 18-year-olds into state Medicaid programs and covers them through age 21. This provides young people transitioning with seamless health service provision.