Last week HHS issued a CMS Information Bulletin, on how states can extend Medicaid coverage to young people up to age 26 if they aged out of foster care and then later move to another state.
Under the ACA young people who exited foster care have mandatory coverage under Medicaid to the age of 26. That provision was inserted to match the larger ACA provision that allows parents to continue to cover their own children on their policies to the age of 26. Unfortunately, because of the way the provision was written and interpreted and because there was no opportunity to make technical fixes to the ACA, the provision does not extend to young people who aged out of foster care and then move to a different state.
The purpose of the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS) Informational Bulletin is to emphasis again that states can pursue a Medicaid demonstration project under section 1115 of the program to provide Medicaid coverage to former foster care youth who aged out of foster care under the responsibility of another state.
According to the bulletin, 14 states cover former foster care youth who were in Medicaid and foster care in any state.
