Background
On June 6, 2006, Casey Family Programs convened a meeting of policy experts and state officials from national organizations, universities, and agencies to respond to concerns about the impact of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA) on children in the child welfare system. The Center for Healthier Children, Families and, Communities at the University of California at Los Angeles; Safe Place: The Center for Child Protection and Health at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; and the Department of Health Policy at George Washington University made presentations on the potential impact of the DRA for children and youth in foster care, which resulted in the attached report.
Summary of report
The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005: Implications for Children Receiving Child Welfare Services, outlines policy leaders’ specific concerns and recommendations for how to respond to and solve DRA challenges that relate directly to children in foster care. The report provides analysis on four potential pitfalls:
- medicaid eligibility and documentation of citizenship
- changes affecting benefits and coverage
- revisions in premium and cost-sharing rules
- restrictions on the availability of federal funding to support state expenditures for Medicaid-covered targeted case management and case management services
For each topic, the report reviews Medicaid policy and practice prior to the DRA, describes key DRA revisions, along with early federal guidance where available, and assesses the implications of these changes for child welfare policy and practice.
To view the complete white paper and fact sheet, please download the PDFs that are linked in the upper-right corner of this page.