Medicaid Gives Tennessee’s Foster Children the Health Care They Desperately Need

For nearly twenty years, Kathy Lyons opened her heart and home in Montgomery County to some of Tennessee's most vulnerable children. Alongside her partner, who recently passed away, Kathy fostered 18 children and adopted four of them as her own. Many of these children came from traumatic backgrounds shaped by abuse, addiction, and poverty. Several lived with severe disabilities that required intensive care. 

Tennessee’s State Medicaid Program, TennCare, gave these children access to critical healthcare – something many had gone without for most of their young lives. As both a foster mom and previous Chair of foster care review boards in Montgomery County, Kathy witnessed the same heartbreaking reality again and again: “I found that a lot of children in foster care were extremely lacking and in desperate need of health care.”

She shares, “In foster care, they were able to get the health care that they so desperately needed thanks to Medicaid.” TennCare offers the comprehensive health coverage these children rely on, like routine doctor’s visits, dental care, therapy sessions, medications, and treatments for their disabilities. 

The cost of medical care for 18 children is impossible to afford without health insurance. In fact, TennCare is the very reason Kathy was able to say “yes” to so many children. With Medicaid, Kathy could focus on being a good mom – not on whether she could afford a specialist appointment or fill a necessary prescription. 

Today, more than 7,000 children are in Tennessee’s foster care system. Across the state, there are families who are ready and willing to help — but without Medicaid, the financial burden can make fostering out of reach. Cuts to TennCare would mean fewer foster families, fewer adoptions, and more children growing up without the safety and love of a permanent home. Kathy's story is a reminder that when we invest in TennCare, we invest in Tennessee’s children — and in the families who are ready to care for them.