Medicaid & Mental Health Stories

Medicaid provides a key safety net so that people can maintain their mental wellness during periods of transition.

Kristin has been an advocate for mental health since the age of 15, when she started to face her own challenges with her mental health. That was 30 years ago. For many years, Kristin has worked as a social worker, providing mental health support to children, youth and teens, as well as geriatric and hospice patients. In that work, she’s witnessed the importance of Medicaid in providing comprehensive health care, including mental health, to vulnerable children and families.

Last November, Kristin lost her job unexpectedly. Immediately, she applied for Wisconsin Medicaid (called BadgerCare) as she knew the importance of having health insurance not only for her physical needs but also for her mental health needs.

With Medicaid coverage, she was able to maintain continuous access to her medications. This is a key priority for people with mental health conditions. It can often take time to find the right medication, and any disruption in medication can bring on negative symptoms.

Medicaid is also covering Kristin’s appointments with her psychiatrist. As she navigates a stressful time, she needs to make slight adjustments to her medication dosage and stay connected to her mental health care providers.

“When I unexpectedly lost my job, I was numb. I support myself financially and my first thought was coverage for my medication. Thankfully I got approved for Medicaid right away. It took a huge burden off my shoulders while I was in the midst of a terrible, life-changing thing that happened. With job loss, your mental health is impacted in numerous ways. You lose your sense of identity, sense of purpose, work relationships and financial stability. Thankfully BadgerCare took one stressful thing off my plate.”

Without access to health care through Medicaid, Kristin would have to rely on free health clinics in her area and medication samples from doctors.

Today, Kristin is volunteering with four different organizations while still job hunting. The job market has been tough, but volunteering has helped Kristin feel a sense of purpose again and explore new professional pathways. She wants to utilize her experience with job loss and help others experiencing unemployment.

“There is still so much stigma and shame when it comes to addressing someone’s mental health conditions. It can truly make or break a person. A huge part of that is the access you have to the appropriate treatment — psychiatry and counseling. If your mental health is untreated, it impacts your life is so many ways; employment stability, social relationships, physical health, finances, etc. If people can’t get access to care, their quality of life suffers.”

Medicaid helped Susan get and stay well so she could work as a peer support worker.

Susan lives with bipolar disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. She was first diagnosed at age 19. She had her first mental health crisis after her freshman year of college. Since she didn’t have health insurance, her parents helped her apply for Medicaid after her hospitalization. She was accepted, and Medicaid covered her hospital bill as well as outpatient services including therapy. Susan was able to return to college and finish her degree.

20 years later, Susan was working as a teacher when she had another mental health crisis. This time, she lost her job. She was living in Mississippi and did not qualify for Medicaid in that state. She scraped together some care, despite being uninsured. She found a clinic that could provide her with limited counseling and joined a patient assistance program for medication. Her counselor could only see her once a month, which was not enough for Susan to make progress towards wellness.

Susan moved to Louisiana, where she qualified for coverage through the state’s Medicaid program. Once she enrolled, she had access to much better care — she received counseling once a week, she maintained her medication regimen, and she sought critical physical health care as well. As a result, she was diagnosed with sleep apnea and diabetes and started treatment plans for both conditions.

Without Medicaid, Susan wouldn’t have gotten her physical health checkups either. “I would not have gotten diagnosed with sleep apnea and gotten that treated. I don’t know how I would have gotten medications. I think counseling would still be only once a month. I don’t think I would have been able to return to work.”

Medicaid allowed Susan to take the time she needed to heal. She was also able to take time to help her daughter (who now works as a social worker). Today, Susan is a peer support specialist. She has private health insurance through her job, as does her husband. She works at NAMI Southeast Louisiana, as a case manager at a day center for adults with mental health conditions. She helps individuals navigate health insurance, SNAP, finding health care providers, and other key life skills. She also leads a NAMIWalks team, which has been a top ten fundraising team for her local NAMI chapter, NAMI Southeast Louisiana.

She says, “I am doing really well today. Right now, my dad is facing some health issues. I’m seeing my therapist once a week and taking medication like I should. I’m seeing my psychiatrist. I work to practice self-care, and to not spread myself too thin. I have not been hospitalized since 2011.”

“I want policymakers to understand that Medicaid is a very important part of becoming well with a mental health issue. Recovery can take several years, and sometimes I couldn’t work. I needed access to medications and counseling. Without that, I would not have gotten well. I would have continued to go to the hospital, to get in that cycle of multiple hospitalizations.”

“Medicaid and the resources it connects us to have allowed my son to be in recovery.”

Tracy’s son lives with schizoaffective disorder. He had his first episode in 2017 and was admitted to the hospital. Tracy had never experienced someone close to her with a condition like schizoaffective disorder before. Her son cycled in and out of the hospital and jail while Tracy tried to learn about what was happening to her son and how to help him. During his first hospitalization, hospital staff helped enroll him in Medicaid, and Medicaid covered his hospital stay retroactively.

After an arrest, Tracy’s son was referred to the mental health court in his state. He started to get connected to resources that could really help him. Medicaid covered group and individual therapies, as well as living in a group home. Slowly, Tracy’s son began to get better. He got sober, but noticed that his mental health symptoms persisted. He started to realize he needed medications to manage his mental health condition.

With coverage from Medicaid, Tracy’s son tried several medications. He struggled with difficult side effects before finding the medication that works best for him. Tracy said that once he found the right medication, “It was like night and day.”

Tracy shared that her son attended her family Christmas gift exchange for the first time in 8 years. He joins family dinners and participates in conversations, where he used to sit quietly while others talked around him. He did experience another episode of psychosis, but he recognized the symptoms and asked for more intensive mental health care in the hospital to help him.

Without Medicaid, Tracy thinks her son would have become a ward of the state. “I would imagine he would have remained in jail, served his term, and be wandering the streets right now,” if he didn’t have Medicaid or the mental health court system. “We would not have a connection with our son.”

Today, Tracy’s son is working part time. Once he stabilized on his medication, he was able to move home with Tracy. She says, “We are doing very well now. My son is engaged in our family and he is working. He even bought a used car. He’s in recovery, but it’s not perfect. He is exhausted. Things are going so much better than they were three months ago, a year ago, or even three years ago.”

Tracy believes that her son will be working fulltime by the end of the year. “I believe he will be a contributing member of society.”

“Medicaid has allowed my son to go through a very long journey to recovery. His story would be a horror story if they take away resources.”

At the end of 2018, my ten-year relationship ended with my fiancé, which turned my world upside down. I moved into an apartment with my elderly grandmother who was showing early signs of dementia. I was in a career transition and worked three jobs to make ends meet. I was making just enough to cover basic living expenses and didn’t have insurance since I wasn’t working full-time. I withdrew from friends and family and retreated to myself, struggling to survive each day. As I navigated my life crisis, my mental health was at a low point. It became hard to want to continue to live and my suicidal ideation was at its peak. The emotional pain of such a world-shattering event was too much to bear because it physically hurt and I didn’t know how to stop it. I turned to unhealthy ways of coping just to make it through the day. I knew that I needed help, but couldn’t afford it. I felt like I was drowning in the deep end, standing on my tippy toes and gasping for air with each jump. I was exhausted and tired and couldn’t see a way out.

At the time, I was able to turn to Medicaid to get the insurance that I needed to get myself the help that I desperately needed. I got myself into therapy and slowly began the healing process. I remained dedicated to monthly therapy appointments and was able to focus on my recovery so that I wouldn’t slip down a dark path. I was working to put my life back together and pick up the pieces. It took years and thankfully I’ve gotten back on my feet and averted the emergency room. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I didn’t have access to mental healthcare in my time of crisis.

Medicaid didn’t only help me through one of the darkest times of my life, it gave my family access to healthcare growing up. While my dad worked three jobs, 7 days a week at restaurants that didn’t offer healthcare, my mom was the matriarch in the household. She made sure that my 3 younger siblings and I were healthy and took us to the doctors when we needed care.

Too often, families who can’t afford the rising costs of healthcare will opt to skip the preventative screenings or not follow up in the early stages of an illness. This can lead to severe consequences down the line with greater financial burdens in the event of an escalated illness that requires emergency care. Cutting Medicaid won’t save us money, it would just shift the costs to our entire community and stop people from getting needed mental health and preventative care.

Please protect Medicaid and protect mental health care for families like mine and for those who might find themselves in situations like me.

Medicaid allowed Jill to attend nursing school as a single mother and receive treatment for postpartum depression.

At age 27, Jill experienced an intense bout of postpartum depression. Through her church, she connected with counseling and medication. But she was going through a divorce and lost her health insurance coverage through her husband’s job. She was in nursing school fulltime, and her daughters were 3 and 1 years old. She had a lot to manage.

Her daughters enrolled in Head Start, where Jill learned she and her daughters qualified for health care coverage through Medicaid. Once she was enrolled, she was able to resume counseling for her postpartum depression. She saw a psychiatrist and was prescribed an antidepressant. Because she had Medicaid coverage, she was able to keep up with her children’s well-child exams and health needs as well as take care of her own mental health — all while taking classes fulltime. Jill described this time in her life: “I was in classes all day, then I picked my kids up. Then after my kids went to sleep, I would study late at night.”

After four years, she graduated and began work as a nurse. She enrolled in private insurance and no longer needed Medicaid.

Years later, Jill hit another crisis moment in her life. She had remarried, and her husband had lost his job. Jill was able to enroll in Medicaid again for her and her family during this time. It meant she was able to keep taking her medications and seeing a counselor. In counseling, Jill found support through validation. She could get help making plans for herself and her family. Eventually, Jill worked through this period. She got off Medicaid again and has not been enrolled since.

“Sometimes people think of Medicaid and think of people who are lazy or will never get off Medicaid. I think there are a lot of people like me that use Medicaid but will move on. It’s a step up for someone who is down and needs to get through a certain period of time.”

If she hadn’t had Medicaid, Jill thinks her life would be a lot different. “I don’t think I would be where I am today. I would have given up on school. I probably wouldn’t have the relationship I do with my family.” She also believes she would have faced suicidal ideation during her periods of crisis. “During those times, the only thing that got me out of my bed was my kids.”

Jill has also seen the impact of Medicaid in her career as a nurse. When working for the state, she would visit homes of children who had intense health needs, such as needing to be on a ventilator because of cystic fibrosis. For some of those parents, caretaking was a fulltime job and they weren’t able to be employed. Medicaid is a lifeline, providing them and their children with health care coverage.

Today, Jill says: “I’m doing way better now. I’m still on an antidepressant which I will be on for the rest of my life. I’ve come to accept that.” She is working part time, taking care of her husband, and looking forward to retirement.

In her late 20s, Julie was diagnosed with a mental health condition and provided a medication. For many years, she worked full time and had health insurance through her job or her husband’s job. For many years she experienced mental wellness — working hard, saving money, and even publishing a book.

This changed in her 50s. Like many people who live with depression, Julie’s depression came back. She had moved several times and was going through a divorce. She lost her job, her insurance, and spent two weeks in a homeless shelter before moving in with her parents.

She knew she needed health insurance to manage her symptoms, so she enrolled in Medicaid (Michigan Healthy Families). Once she was enrolled, she was able to settle in to a healthier routine: she went to doctors’ appointments and had her medications prescribed to her. She wasn’t making any money at the time, so having access to medications without a copay was lifesaving for her.

As Julie continued to work on her wellness, she found an opportunity to volunteer with aging Catholic nuns in a monastery, in exchange for room and board. She was able to focus on caregiving for the elderly women because she knew her health care needs were being met by the Medicaid program. Eventually she moved home and helped care for her terminally ill mother.

Julie started to feel well enough to set some goals and start to think about what she might do next. She realized that she had an aptitude and a passion for caregiving through her experiences with the nuns and her mother. Today, Julie works as a home health aide. She no longer receives Medicaid coverage — she recently turned 65 and now qualifies for Medicare. She owns a home and her caregiving work gives her a sense of purpose.

“Medicaid was not wasted on me. It was an investment. Because now, look at what I am able to do. There’s a desperate need for caregivers for elderly. There’s not enough of us. I found out that I can do it and I am good at it. It’s given me the lifestyle I wish everyone would have. If I didn’t have Medicaid there, that I could count on, it would have been so much more difficult. Medicaid is for a hard time, to get you through it. It was the scaffolding as I was rebuilding.”