Argumentative Essay On Foster Children

Kate Stollsteimer

Ms. Vaughan

Eng. 102-RZA

8 March 2023

Missed Opportunities Foster children experience many more traumatic experiences in their early lives compared to the average person. They are exposed to behaviors and substances they should not encounter. They also have to go through the process of being removed from the only home they have ever known and the only parents or guardians they are familiar with. These children are then placed in an unfamiliar house with people they have never met with no time to ease into it and no time to warm up to them. With the child having to process and try to make sense of their new life, the last thing they should have to be worried about is basic healthcare, which should be covered under the umbrella

One of the main reasons that children are not receiving the services they deserve is that there are very few doctors and therapists that are willing to accept Medicaid. Dr. Albert Wu states, “I have frequently had to resort to calling (psychiatrists) I know and cajoling and begging them to squeeze in my patients. The current system is broken” (Carroll). Dr. Wu also states later in the interview, “Medicaid pays low fees, has delays in reimbursement and comes with extra administrative burdens” (Carroll). This is the real reason why Medicaid is not providing for children the way it should be. Even though the program continues to expand, therapists and physicians do not want to have to deal with the paperwork and the extended time that it takes Medicaid to insure their clients’ appointments. Christi Stollsteimer has been fostering for eight years and has had a lot of trouble dealing with Medicaid. She had to search for five years to find a counselor that would take her young foster child. On the other hand, the foster children that are receiving mental health services are often not taken seriously or misdiagnosed. A former foster child described the system as “a collective that is structured according to laws and judges that ‘see patterns’ instead of impacted individuals” (Thomas and

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