DaytonDailyNews.com

COLUMBUS — Each year more than 1,000 young Ohioans leave the state foster care system without getting adopted, immediately losing their homes and medical insurance on their 18th birthdays.

But a new provision in state law will extend Medicaid coverage to these Ohioans until their 21st birthdays.

"It is very important. We feel that youth who go out to the work force or go off to college should not be cut off from medical coverage," said Adrian McLemore, 21, a junior at Wright State University who left foster care at age 18. "I aged out of foster care. When I turned 18 and went off to college, it was a struggle."

McLemore, who is involved in a foster kids advocacy group called Overcoming Hurdles in Ohio, said he is still facing about $1,000 in medical bills from a car wreck his freshman year. He applauded state officials who put the Medicaid expansion into the state budget.

Medicaid coverage also is being expanded for about 3,000 pregnant women whose household incomes are between 150 percent and 200 percent of the federal poverty level. That translates to incomes up to $41,300 for a family of four.

The expansion is expected to cost $19.6 million a year in state and federal funds for the pregnancy coverage and $19.6 million a year for foster kids.