He thinks he needs a root canal, but the full-time student, 22, is uninsured. He can’t afford a trip to the dentist.

“I’m only working 30 hours a week. I wouldn’t have enough money to do something like that,” said Cox-Reed, a film and video student at Columbia College in Chicago.

While many young adults are now covered by the Affordable Care Act, able to remain on their parents’ insurance until age 26, the rules are different for those like Cox-Reed, who grew up in the foster care system.

There are more than 400,000 children in foster care in the United States, the Department of Health and Human Services said last year. All are provided with health care coverage as long as they are wards of the state.

When foster kids turn 18, they age out of the system and instantly lose their coverage.

That’s about to change, when another part of Obamacare takes effect on January 1, 2014. Medicaid coverage will be extended for former foster youth until they reach 26, as long as the individual was in foster care and enrolled in Medicaid until the age of 18.

“I definitely think it would be a big relief, and I would definitely feel more secure as far as my health goes,” Cox-Reed said.

But there’s a catch. Cox-Reed has dreams of traveling across the nation and becoming a filmmaker. A future relocation could jeopardize his medical coverage.

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Jeffrey R. Ungvary President