Moving out of state where I aged out of foster care. Will probably lose current Medicaid. What could/ should I do for health insurance in new state?

TLDR: Living on border of two states. Forced to stay within region because of school at least, current state is becoming not a valid option to stay in for many reasons, but moving over the border will cause me to lose Medicaid I have because of aging out of fostecare. Lots more opportunity in other state for jobs, housing, etc. , but no Medicaid.

This is kind of a complicated predicament which I do not have a lot of choices in. I have exhausted every possible lead of keeping Medicaid. I don’t think it’s going to happen. I am moving from one state in which I aged of fostercare in and currently receive Medicaid from to a state which has opted to use the full 7 years of phase in for former foster youth that aged out in any state and that has not adopted Medicaid expansion. From what I am seeing online, it is extremely hard to get Medicaid in this new state and even being broke, I don’t qualify. I am 24 years old have 1 year and 8 months left of Medicaid coverage. At this point I have to move because I grew up the border of these two states and went to school at the closest university after graduating community college which was over my current states border & in this state that is probably impossible to get Medicaid in. I am 1 year ish from graduating and my university apparently opted out of student health insurance for the coming academic year. I cannot transfer because I am so close, this program is really good, and I have heard that many schools reject other school’s upper course credit hours.

I basically have to move because home state has little to no affordable living options within a reasonable distance of my school. This part of my current state is also has very little job opportunity at all in almost all fields. I can’t get internships here to help me get a good job later. I’ve always planned to move away from this region because finding a good career job will be almost impossible. In addition, I struggle A LOT socially because of having grown up and aged out of fostercare in a place where everyone knows everyone and once they think they know you, there is no chance for growth. I’m also very visibly a racial minority in the area. This area is honestly just miserable. At some point, with moving to get a job, I would most likely have to lapse in insurance or find an alternative anyway. At this point, it might just be hurting me more to stay in this state and get Medicaid when I could be working towards other things that I can’t do here.

I have very little money and make $15 an hour at a part time job. This year so far, I have made VERY LITTLE money because I have had a very tough semester and cut back on hours. Have almost nothing in savings.

My question is, what are my option for health insurance when I most likely have to move to this new state? My part time job has no health insurance options for me. Should I try to get something through the ACA? Am I just going to have to have no insurance and deal till I get a good job? If so, I could probably use the university health center and community services until then. I would prefer to have some type of health insurance.

submitted by /u/IndividualVacation40
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