Medicaid and Mental Health in Foster Care

Medicare and Medicaid is a common discussion among the United States Government. Usually when people here about this, they think of the government forcing health care upon the people. People never consider the forgotten kids in foster care who are enrolled in Medicaid and the unfortunate circumstances for them.

According to a federal watchdog, foster care children enrolled in Medicaid are not getting proper healthcare thanks to ineffective oversight by federal and state governments. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families require foster children to receive regular care, but many children have been missing these required health screenings. "State government officials are required to ensure that 'children in foster care receive periodic screenings at specified intervals throughout their foster care placement,'" but this standard is often not met. A third of the foster children enrolled in Medicaid did not receive at least one required health screening and a quarter of the foster children enrolled in medicaid received their screening late.

It is critical to the well-being of foster children that they receive needed health services since they are more likely to experience chronic medical, developmental, and mental health problems. Health screenings for foster children assess their medical, dental, hearing, vision, mental health, and other health-related developments. A recommendation of the inspector general is to expand the child and family services reviews to ensure that screenings are received in the proper timeframe. This is not the first report stating that foster children did not receive proper healthcare.

Mental health and disabilities in foster care is still a major issue. A legislation is attempting to be passed that would allow for legal guardians to be appointed to foster teens with mental illness and developmental disabilities who aren't capable of making good decisions for themselves. Right now, the law states that no one can step in to help teens make life decisions until they are 18 years of age because guardianship issues for adults are made in probate court. The proposed law states that children who have a mental-health problems or intellectual disabilities and are living with parents who do not have the means or abilities to deal with the situation must be identified by age 17 so that probate courts could start proceedings when they are 17 1/2. This is in order to ensure that kids who need guidance receive help. They would return to court at the age of 21 to see if a guardian is still needed or not. The bill has already passed in several committees.