Today I wanna talk to you about something deeply personal and so important right now, protecting your mental healthcare in a time when it's getting harder for millions of women to keep it. You may have seen the headlines about the new federal healthcare legislation. Nicknamed the quote, big, beautiful bill that's changing how Medicaid works all across the country. While some leaders say it's about cutting costs and boosting work participation, what it really does is make it much harder for people to stay covered or to get coverage when they need it. For women, this is especially concerning because women make up the majority of Medicaid enrollees nationwide. This program helps pay for therapy, mental health, medications, maternity and postpartum care, preventative care, and so many other services that so many women rely on. So in today's episode, I wanna break down exactly what's changing, who's most at risk, and most importantly, give you clear, practical steps that you can take right now at this point to protect your coverage, your care, and your peace of mind. So first, let's get clear on what's actually happening and why it matters so much for women and women's mental health. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, nearly 58% of all Medicaid recipients are women. That's over 37 million women nationwide. For so many Medicaid is the only way they can afford counseling, trauma, treatment, or care for anxiety, postpartum depression, or other mental health needs. And Medicaid also covers about one in three births in the us. So when eligibility rules tighten, we're not just talking about numbers on a page, we're talking about real moms, babies and families who could suddenly lose access to critical care when they are most in need and most overwhelmed. The new rules tighten income limits, add stricter work and reporting requirements, and shorten the time that you have to renew. So if you miss just one piece of mail or forget to update your income, you could lose coverage overnight. That means that no more therapy sessions, no affordable prescriptions and no checkups for you or your children when you need them. This loss hits women the hardest, especially women of color, single mothers, and those living with disabilities. And the mental health impact of losing coverage can be huge. Untreated anxiety, unprocessed trauma, and the stress of worrying about how you'll get care can make everything feel that much heavier. But here's the good news. There are things that you can do right now to start protecting yourself, and I want to empower you with those steps now so that we can walk the steps together and put you in the best possible position to advocate for yourself and for your needs. First things first. Don't wait until last minute. Log into your state's Medicaid portal, or call your Medicaid caseworker now. Confirm your current status and find out exactly when you need to renew. Write that renewal date down, stick it on the fridge. Set phone reminders. Losing coverage just because you missed a renewal date is sadly really common, but it's completely preventable. There are very few things in the situation that we can control, but this is one of them. So, as your therapist may have told you, control what is within your scope of control. Make sure that you don't miss that renewal date and that you are crystal clear on what exactly is required to renew on time. Number two is to keep your information up to date. A lot of people lose their coverage simply because their address or their income information is out of date. If you've moved changed jobs or your income changed, update that now. In fact, if you know any of this is going to happen in the near future, make sure that you are proactive in updating that information online and talking to your Medicaid caseworker about how and when to update these things. Be sure that you know exactly what requirements there are to qualify for your Medicaid benefits and make sure that you are filling out your paperwork. Honestly and accurately to make sure that there are no discrepancies in your application. Something as simple as a return letter in the mail from Medicaid can cause your benefits to vanish without you even knowing it. We've seen it happen with clients at her time who show up to their therapy session thinking that everything is fine, and unfortunately, our biller has informed us that you lost Medicaid benefits and that we need to pause sessions and figure out a game plan. And oftentimes it's because information has changed and things have not been updated on the state's end. So again. Control what is controllable. Keep your information up to date and things in order on the Medicaid side. in light of this, we recommend that you make sure to open every single letter that comes your way, whether it's email or through official mail. I know it's easy to ignore what's in the mail, but truly don't toss envelopes aside. If you get something from Medicaid or your state health department, open it right away. Read it, complete any forms and send them back on time. And in all of that, if you receive some correspondence or requests that are new and different from what you've done before and it's all very confusing and arduous, you're right. It's meant to be. It's not meant to be easy. So we. Encourage you to ask for help when you need it, and right away. So truly, if you feel stuck or confused, don't wait until the last minute. Don't let that shame creep up. It is truly understandable and it's human that this is hard. Okay, reach out to your Medicaid caseworker. Call a local navigator, or even talk with your therapist when you feel stuck and confused on this process. We are all here to help explain what you need to do, and if we don't have the answers, we are here to try to help connect you with the right resources. And if none of those are within our wheelhouse, depending on your situation, we'll focus on how to help build up your confidence and a game plan for how you can best advocate for yourself. if you think that there is a situation where you may lose Medicaid, or let's say you do everything right and you still lose it, now is the time to look at other options. so instead of waiting for this external thing to happen to you, let's take action now, and instead of waiting to see what happens and waiting for your coverage to be gone, let's look at what are other options of getting healthcare insurance. Can you get insurance through your job? Okay? Let's say your job doesn't offer health insurance. Is there a way that you can negotiate with your boss to get health insurance? Could you apply for a promotion? Maybe this is the time to really look at your work situation and try to apply to a different company that offers better benefits. This is a really wide reaching problem, and this is the time and place for your supervisors and your bosses to understand that employees need more. This should not be a secret. This should not be a surprise to them. Do your best to advocate to your supervisors and request a change in your benefits, a change in your pay, an update to your role so that you can get insurance if you don't have that option through your own employment, or maybe you're not able to be employed right now at a level that would produce benefits for you. Let's consider if your partner's job has that option, are you able to apply with them as a spouse? Is that an option there if you don't have a partner or that is not something that your partner's, job offers, which I understand is the case for many people. Let's look at how we may search through the health insurance marketplace to see if we can buy insurance privately. Now I understand that this can be really intimidating because health insurance and commercial policies can be so expensive, it may feel completely out of reach, but before you dismiss it as completely out of reach, take time to complete the full application on the Connect for Health Colorado website because you may find that you qualify for certain tax credits that make private insurance more affordable than you might think. Even if you yourself don't qualify, your kids may still qualify for these tax credits and reductions to their premiums. Or, your kids may still qualify under the CHIP program for Medicaid benefits and CHIP is the children's. health, Insurance program. so even if your Medicaid changes, your kids may not. So make sure that if you are a parent, you are looking out for yourself, and then you are looking at your kids' situation as kind of its own entity. And when you go through all of that, the next thing to look at is budgeting ahead. Have a really honest conversation with your family about what you might be able to do in terms of paying for care out of pocket. Can you afford to pay for therapy out of pocket, even if it's just for a short time? Know ahead of time what's realistic because that will help you and your therapist in the case of your services at her time therapy, to make a plan together instead of needing to face suddenly stopping care when you really need it the most. And I really wanna encourage you to keep us in the loop. So your therapist truly does wanna know what is happening with your insurance, and if you get a confusing letter or something that doesn't make sense, please bring it to us. That is what therapy sessions are for. We're here to help you reduce the panic and to navigate the problem and to come up with a step-by-step plan to beat it. Okay? We will help you figure out what this means and find you local resources or adjust your care plan if your insurance changes. finally, when it comes to Medicaid, I really encourage you to know your rights. If your Medicaid ends by mistake, you are likely eligible to appeal it. Yes, this is more paperwork, it's more time that you don't have, but it's important to make sure that you have access to care because if you don't have your health, you don't have anything. So in this process, keep all of your paperwork, keep good notes of every call that you make into Medicaid. Keep every email and piece of mail that is exchanged and as much as you can, act quickly when you are in a position where you need to appeal or request your benefits to be reinstated. that can include reinstating your benefits and have them backdated so that you have coverage for appointments that happened maybe within the last couple weeks. Okay. But of course when it comes to this, try to act as quickly as possible because many states do have strict deadlines to file an appeal. So again, don't wait and ask for support and for help in this process where you need it. So what are we at her time therapy doing to help our clients through all of this? We know that many of you're worried, and we really don't want you to feel alone in this, and with whatever happens next. That's why we're expanding our support in a few key ways. the first is offering sliding scale. Out of pocket pay spots on our caseloads. So if you do find yourself in a position where you lose insurance and need to think about paying for therapy out of pocket, please talk to us about lower fee session options if you are truly not able to pay our full out of session rate. There are different options and you can view all of our sliding scale requirements and breakdowns on our website. If you go to her time therapy.com/investments, or if you go to our main homepage and click on the investment and rate tab, it'll give you a full breakdown. We can also work with to redo your treatment plan to account for more. Flexible session plans, so this could look like adjusting your weekly sessions down to biweekly, or switching from hour long sessions to 30 minute sessions each week so that therapy can be accessed in a different format that is slightly more affordable. This is oftentimes much better than just stopping therapy altogether because you can still work towards your goals and still have those check-ins and that support that you need. We're also looking at expanding our insurance partnerships. So we're working hard to join more commercial plans so that if you do, earn out of Medicaid benefits, which is always a huge celebration, or you are just not eligible for whatever reason, to use those benefits, and Medicaid's being really difficult and you turn to a commercial policy instead, we wanna be able to take as many of those plans as possible. So we do take. right now, Cigna, Aetna, United and Anthem blue Cross Blue Shield. we are looking to expand to more of those, we are also offering some new service options, which, I'm particularly excited about. One new wellness option is that we are adding personal training and health coaching packages so that you have a slightly. More affordable service option that still helps you stay on top of your self-care and still helps you have an accountability partner at her time to help you continue meeting your goals, even if you don't have insurance. That covers psychotherapy. the next, service that we're officially launching in November, which I'm most excited about is financial counseling. Now, a big element in all of this is that women have never been taught personal financial literacy. That is not a thing that society has emphasized as important for us to know. So we are launching financial counseling to make sure that you have direct education and, an Accountability partner that helps you really look at your numbers, your income, your debt, and help you to not only build a budget that helps you feel more secure, but to actually teach you how to invest and how to make money work for you so that you are never needing to be in this position again. So that you are in a position where you've learned how to earn enough money and income so that you are so far above the Medicaid cutoff line that you know that you are safe and that you have a financial safety net. Unfortunately, money sometimes does help. Secure happiness and freedom, and that is what we are here to also help you learn how to gain for yourself. So we're not just talking about mental health, we're building a whole care network for you to meet you wherever your needs are. in all of this I want you to remember, don't panic. Also don't put things off, okay? Check your Medicaid status, open every letter, keep your information current and talk to your support system, including your therapist. If you're unsure about what to do next, we are here to help you figure it out together. And we have a lot of options to make sure that your care, at least through her time, therapy remains, available and as accessible as possible. You're not alone in this. Your mental health matters and it truly does not need to be put on hold. It matters too much to do that. So for any updates or extra resources or to learn more about our new services, please visit her time therapy.com and also join our email list to get up to date, information on new services and resources that we are giving away. If this episode helped you, please share it with a friend, a neighbor, or a family member who may need it too. And as always, please be gentle with yourself. You're doing the best you can, and that's enough.