Illinois’ top Medicaid contractor has repeatedly failed to deliver basic medical services to thousands of foster children, from dental visits to immunizations to well-being checks, leaving foster parents to scramble to find health care, wait months for appointments and pay medical expenses out of their own pockets for the abused and neglected children they take into their homes, an Illinois Answers Project investigation has found.
Since 2020, the state of Illinois has paid nearly $370 million to the for-profit insurance powerhouse Centene Corp. to manage health care for 36,700 current and former foster children as part of the state’s YouthCare program.
