“It’s Like Pay Or Don’t Have It and Now I’m Doing Without”: The Voice of Transitional Uninsured Former Foster Youth
Open accessAbstract
Twenty-four thousand American youth lose Medicaid entitlements after discharge from foster care annually. The circumstance of being uninsured is a formidable barrier to health care that leaves the youth vulnerable to unmet health care needs. Given that foster youth often develop physical and/or mental health problems as a result of abuse or neglect, continuous access to health care is especially important. This descriptive phenomenology study explores the lived experience of transitional uninsured former foster youth. Nine uninsured former foster youth were recruited from a nonprofit community organization in an urban county and interviewed using semistructured interviews. Four themes identified from the analysis were (a) “Surviving the real world”: emancipation without essential documentation; (b) “It’s not always going to be fine”: managing mental and physical health without health care insurance; (c) “Roadblocks”: barriers to securing health care insurance; and (d) “Just not knowing”: Medicaid eligible albeit without health care insurance.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Events that negatively impacted youths' transition included unemployment, lack of health insurance and education, poor relationships, financial and legal issues, and feelings of disempowerment.
“Events that negatively impacted youths’ transition included the following: unemployment, lack of health insurance and education, poor relationships, financial and legal issues, and feelings of disempowerment.”
From Former Foster System Youth: Perspectives on Transitional Supports and Programs (2021) · cites this paper as [16]
The Background discusses unemployment, educational setbacks, poverty, and lack of supportive relationships among former foster youth. The Results and “Roadblocks” theme describe loss of health insurance and financial barriers during transition; Theme 1 also recounts one participant’s juvenile detention. The paper does not clearly identify legal issues or feelings of disempowerment as general factors negatively affecting youths’ transition. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Lincoln, Y. S., Guba, E. G., & Pilotta, J. J. (1985) · International Journal of Intercultural Relations · doi:10.1016/0147-1767(85)90062-8 · Cited by 45,787 · see citing works
Qualitative Research in Health Care
(2006) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9780470750841 · Cited by 2,713 · see citing works
Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation: A Roadmap from Beginning to End
Bloomberg, L., & Volpe, M. (2008) · Sage eBooks · doi:10.4135/9781452226613 · Cited by 1,677 · see citing works
Prevalence of Psychiatric Disorders Among Older Youths in the Foster Care System
McMILLEN, J. C., ZIMA, B. T., SCOTT, L. D., AUSLANDER, W. F., MUNSON, M. R., OLLIE, M. T., & SPITZNAGEL, E. L. (2005) · Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry · doi:10.1097/01.chi.0000145806.24274.d2 · Cited by 523 · see citing works
Integrated Theory and Knowledge Development in Nursing
Chinn, P. L., & Kramer, M. K. (2004) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 435 · see citing works
Spiegelberg, H. (1994) · Phaenomenologica · doi:10.1007/978-94-009-7491-3 · Cited by 428 · see citing works
The state of childhood asthma, United States, 1980-2005.
Akinbami, L. J. (2006) · PubMed · Cited by 385 · see citing works
Developmental Issues for Young Children in Foster Care
Committee on Early Childhood, A. A. D. C. (2000) · PEDIATRICS · doi:10.1542/peds.106.5.1145 · Cited by 188 · see citing works
Qualitative Research in Health Care
Holloway, I. (2005) · Cited by 152 · see citing works
Samuels, G. M. (2008) · Cited by 145 · see citing works
Caring for the Vulnerable: Perspectives in Nursing Theory, Practice, and Research
Phillips, J. C. (2005) · Journal of cultural diversity · Cited by 121 · see citing works
The Foster Care System and Health Status of Foster Children
Schor, E. L. (1982) · PEDIATRICS · doi:10.1542/peds.69.5.521 · Cited by 116 · see citing works
From Medicaid to Uninsured: Drop‐Out among Children in Public Insurance Programs
Sommers, B. D. (2005) · Health Services Research · doi:10.1111/j.1475-6773.2005.00342.x · Cited by 112 · see citing works
Kushel, M. B., Yen, I. H., Gee, L., & Courtney, M. E. (2007) · Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine · doi:10.1001/archpedi.161.10.986 · Cited by 81 · see citing works
Caring for the vulnerable : perspectives in nursing theory, practice, and research
de Chesnay, M., & Anderson, B. A. (2005) · DigitalCommons - Kennesaw State University (Kennesaw State University) · Cited by 52 · see citing works
Health Insurance Discontinuities Among Adolescents Leaving Foster Care
Raghavan, R., Shi, P., Aarons, G. A., Roesch, S. C., & McMillen, J. C. (2008) · Journal of Adolescent Health · doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2008.08.008 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
Addressing the health needs of adolescents transitioning out of foster care.
Lopez, P., & Allen, P. J. (2007) · PubMed · Cited by 29 · see citing works
Toward providing equal access to health care for foster youth
Hunter, A. (2011) · Deep Blue (University of Michigan) · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Fernandes-Alcantara, A. L., & Stoltzfus, E. (2012) · University of North Texas Digital Library (University of North Texas) · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 3
- Colaizzi, P. (1978). Psychological research as a phenomenologist views it. In R. Valle & M. King (Eds.), Existential phenomeno- logical alternative for psychology (pp. 48-71). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
- Mosqueda, J., & Rodriguez, J. (2005). Voices carry: Recommenda- tions of young people in the Foster Care System. San Francisco, CA: California Youth Connection Policy Conference Report. Retrieved from http://www.calyouthconn.org/files/cyc/PDF/ CYC_report_2005.pdf
- Ramaswamy, S., Malik, S., & Dewan, V. (2005). Tips to manage dis- continuation syndromes: informed tapering can protect patients when you stop a medication. Current Psychiatry, 4(9), 29-44.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Former Foster System Youth: Perspectives on Transitional Supports and Programs
Armstrong-Heimsoth, A., Hahn-Floyd, M., Williamson, H. J., Kurka, J. M., Yoo, W., & Rodríguez De Jesús, S. A. (2021) · The Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research · doi:10.1007/s11414-020-09693-6 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
- Authors
- Kruszka, B. J., Lindell, D., Killion, C., & Criss, S.
- Affiliations
- Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital (US)
- Case Western Reserve University (US)
- United Way of Central Indiana, Indianapolis, IN, USA
- Venue
- Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2012-02
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 27-37
- ISSN
- 1527-1544 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-7468
- OpenAlex
- W2059154019
- Cited by
- 20
- References
- 19
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 2
- FWCI
- 1.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Policy Politics & Nursing Practice (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Child Welfare and Adoption
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Homelessness and Social Issues
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Healthcare Policy and Management
- Keywords
- former foster youth, Medicaid, health insurance access, barriers to care, mental health, physical health, abuse and neglect, lived experience, emancipation, Medicaid eligibility
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Foster Home Care, Health Policy, Health Services Accessibility, Health Services Needs and Demand, Humans, Male, Medicaid, Policy Making, United States, Medically Uninsured, Risk Assessment, Vulnerable Populations, Young Adult, Transition to Adult Care
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
