Health Care for
Adolescents and Young Adults Leaving Foster Care:
Policy Options for
Improving Access (2006)
Posted February 2006
The Center for Adolescent
Health & the Law, in collaboration with the Public Policy Analysis
Center for Middle Childhood, Adolescent, and Young Adults Health at the
University of California, San Francisco (UCSF Policy Center) has produced
Health Care for Adolescents and Young Adults Leaving Foster Care: Policy
Options for Improving Access.
The issue brief describes the young people
who are aging out of foster care, their health status, and the barriers
to securing health care they face when leaving foster care. It explains how health care access can
be improved for this population, by describing how Medicaid and SCHIP
currently reach adolescents and young adults, and how these two programs
can be used to help former foster youth. The brief emphasizes the
important opportunity presented by the Medicaid Expansion Option contained
in the Foster Care Independence Act of 1999, and summarizes the policy
options that can best improve access to health care for former foster
youth.
