Chelsea Brooks

27 years old, graduate student, Florence

I was 28 weeks pregnant when I lost my insurance. And I applied for Medicaid. It was pretty easy to apply for. I ended up having to go a lot because I had high blood pressure while I was pregnant. Like probably two weeks before I was supposed to give birth, I started having some contractions. I went to the hospital. They paid for my ER visit. I gave birth early. They paid for that, my C-section, and I had to have emergency gallbladder surgery two weeks after I gave birth. It paid for that. 

I am still on my Medicaid, from my understanding, due to the COVID pandemic. I had to have a postpartum depression follow up with my primary physician. I went in for my six-week appointment, I was fine. I didn’t ask for anything. I had to go in again after my six-week appointment and basically I told my doctor like, “Hey, I’m not coping well. I’m fine. My son is safe. But I just feel like I’m not coping well. I’m crying, I’m tearful, any little thing is setting me off.” He was like, “Yeah, after you give birth sometimes you have those hormones.” I was breastfeeding as well. I was up, down, up, down, not getting sleep. He put me on something. He was like, “Follow up with your primary doctor within a week.” I did, and Medicaid paid for that. 

[Not having health insurance] would have affected me bad. I wouldn’t have been able to go in and just be like, “Oh, I got a doctor’s appointment.” They’re gonna ask you for money…. Medicaid really gave me the opportunity to get the help that I needed. I could actually be not crying while helping my child. I could be a full-time parent and just be able to take care of him without feeling down or depressed and not miss his moments, not be unhappy with him, you know. 

Personally, I feel like men shouldn’t make decisions regarding women’s health. … But if they cared about females and mental health and postpartum depression and anything like that, they would pass [the postpartum Medicaid extension]. Because the bigger issue is if women don’t have Medicaid or it’s not extended, do you not know how much could go wrong? Postpartum depression can lead to suicide, it can lead to infant death, it can lead to anything. It’s like they’re not seeing the bigger picture. 

Kristen Elliott 

30 years old, stay-at-home mom, Brandon

If your Medicaid is canceled within 60 days [postpartum], you only have that 60 days. To me that’s like, OK, if you have any immediate needs, they need to be addressed now, while you’re still adjusting, trying to get back to normal life. Your body is still going under major changes, especially during those first six to eight weeks. It’s such a short time to expect mothers to not need postpartum care. So I’ve been thankful that I have had the extended care [since the birth of Sadie, my fifth child, in October 2021] and that it has been covered. My husband owns a small business, so we don’t have insurance otherwise. And I stay at home with the kids.

The Medicaid went out after 60 days [with my fourth baby]. The postpartum depression, it was actually a good bit later. Truly I think I was dealing with it before I actually got help. But that’s a big thing– new moms, you’ll blow things off as, well, we’re adjusting or things are just hard because there’s a new baby and you’re not getting enough sleep. You just fall underneath all the laundry and the dishes and nursing the baby. You don’t really think about yourself. She was closer to nine months before I ever got on anything, and saw somebody for my postpartum depression. 

When I finally decided that I needed to go, a huge hesitancy was not having any medical coverage at that time. I was in a gap of where it was gonna cost out of pocket for me to go. So I was already kind of in a bad place, I didn’t want to get out of bed. I didn’t want to do anything. I just wanted to lay around and sleep. If I did get out of bed it was major anxiety. I would panic over small things.

Elliott paid out of pocket for treatment for postpartum depression following the birth of her fourth child. 

I can tell such a huge difference [following the birth of Sadie], because one, I was already on prior medication for my anxiety and depression, things like that. But the adjustments that I’ve needed after having her, you know, it’s so much of an ease to just go and not have to stress over the finances and things like that. I don’t have to let it build up to where I’m at my breaking point. I felt like I’ve connected with my baby more, I feel like I’ve bonded with her more. I’ve felt more like myself, bringing her home, getting settled in. We had a NICU stay and we were in and out of the PICU, for the first eight weeks of her life, and even through all of that, if I hadn’t had that care, I think things would have looked a lot different for me.

Emma To

32 years old, Nurse anesthetist, Madison County 

I was an RN for maybe three years, and then I went back to school for nurse anesthesia, which is advanced level practitioner. When you go back to school, you cannot work. The program’s so hard, if they do find out that you work and you’re failing, then you absolutely have no excuse.

I had went travel nursing before, saved up a bunch of money, I thought I was preparing myself. Then I found out I was pregnant. Surprise! I was married for eight years and never got pregnant. Then I was like crap, how are we going to do this, because I can’t work now. I went and got on Medicaid. 

Whenever I delivered the baby [in 2015] they gave me 60 days… I think five days postpartum I had an allergic reaction to one of my medications. I had postpartum depression, I had postpartum anxiety, I had to call an ambulance when I had the allergic reaction, and Medicaid covered all of that. Luckily we have a friend of the family that was an insurance agent. He hooked me up with [a plan through] the Affordable Care Act [after I got kicked off Medicaid]. 

Medicaid is viewed as for poor people. But here I am, college-educated, I had a four-year Bachelor’s degree, and [I was] an RN. [I was] going back to school to get my doctorate. There’s a stigma in getting Medicaid. I hate that people look at it for just low socioeconomics. It’s not. It’s for help. 

I paid taxes all those years. I worked since I was 16 years old. I was limited whenever I actually needed it, because I was trying to better myself– it was cut off for a certain amount of time. Now I’m a CRNA. I make over six figures a year. I don’t mind helping others out there who need it. This is how it’s supposed to work.