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Insurance for former foster kids

Legislators weigh extending health coverage to age 21

Stuart Steers, Rocky Mountain News

Published March 27, 2007 at midnight

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Foster children in Colorado with medical problems are in for a rude shock when they turn 18. No longer wards of the state, most of them suddenly find themselves without health insurance and on their own with huge medical bills.

"I was homeless and got really sick in a shelter," said Stephanie Wooten, a 20-year-old former foster child who appeared at a house committee hearing Monday. "I had an ear infection and upper respiratory infection. Two months later I got a bill for $2,000."

Wooten and several other former foster kids appeared before the House Health and Human Services Committee to support a bill that would allow former foster children to receive Medicaid until they turn 21. Many of the onetime foster children are part of a group organized by Mile High United Way that is trying to help them make the transition to independence.

Cathy Goodman, a longtime foster mother, said a boy with severe mental problems who lived with her for several years is no longer able to buy medication.

"He was severely abused and was hard to place because he had such overwhelming issues," Goodman said. "Once he was on medication, he went from being a dropout to being on the honor roll. His school couldn't believe the change."

Goodman said once the boy turned 18 he couldn't afford the medicines, which cost $1,200 per month. After being arrested for threatening a stranger, he now lives in a halfway house. Goodman said she believes he may soon be homeless.

"If he had stayed on meds, he might have a job and a place to live," she told the subcommittee.

The bill, SB2, would cover an estimated 1,700 young people who have exited the foster care system. The cost is estimated at $4 million per year and would be funded by the state's tobacco tax.

The bill has already passed the senate and was approved unanimously by the house committee.

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