Hello! I'm Cassidy to some of you, Carmilla to others. I'm reaching out to ask for financial support from my loved ones and community to get out of debt.

TL;DR

I'm asking for $5,400 to pay off credit card debt I've accrued over the past 14 months from rising health insurance costs and ongoing medical expenses.

More Context:

I have had to pay for unsubsidized health insurance through the marketplace for the past six years, due to not having access to employer-sponsored health insurance (a lot of outpatient therapist work is contract work). From last winter until now, have accumulated $3,400 in credit card debt through paying for health insurance premiums and healthcare appointment costs (mainly psychotherapy)-- due to the high monthly premiums and high annual deductibles involved in unsubsidized marketplace plans. The debt will grow to about $5,400 before I am done meeting my annual deductible for 2026, because I cannot afford to pay the full cost for my therapy and other needed medical appointments with my income alone (and all appointments are full cost before the deductible is met, except for annual physical).

I have made several life changes recently-- getting a new job last month that will offer employer-sponsored health insurance in the near future, and learning and maintaining a budgeting system-- that make me confident I can stay out of credit card debt moving forward if I can get out of this current hole.

The Most Context:

As my fellow mental health workers know, wages for therapists who just got out of graduate school, and are not yet independently licensed, are untenably low. I was able to scrape by the first few years after getting my master's degree in 2020, by combining the money I was making at my pre-licensure therapist jobs, with the excess student loan funds remaining that I had borrowed during graduate school (thank you income-based repayment plans!), and receiving some financial help from my family.

The biggest challenge in budgeting and paying my bills since finishing grad school has been-- because a lot of therapist work is fee-for-service/ contract work without health insurance benefits-- I have had to buy health insurance for the last 6 years through the Massachusetts Health Connector. Health insurance has been a necessity for me, because I have needed to maintain ongoing access to psychotherapy as a client, in order to maintain my long term sobriety from addiction, and manage chronic mental health symptoms. This means that, every year, I've had to pay for a health insurance plan with a high premium (ranging between $500-800 per month, depending on the year), plus a high annual deductible that I always exceed within a few months (around $3000), in addition to the weekly copays for therapy and other medical appointments that remain after the deductible is met.

I became eligible for higher paying jobs at the beginning of 2023 when I earned my LMHC independent license, which allows me to practice psychotherapy without weekly supervision. I did get a higher paying job at that point, but I didn't and still don't make enough to save any money after covering my monthly expenses (due in large part to my disproportionate health insurance and healthcare costs).

I stopped being able to make my credit card payments in full beginning in early 2025 when I sought neuropsychological testing. This was very helpful for me, because I got diagnosed with Autism and ADHD. But the associated costs (some of which went through my insurance, some of which did not) were the beginning of the period of time in which healthcare costs started stacking up to greater than my monthly income, and accumulating the credit card debt. My credit card debt also consists of charges for expenses like groceries, professional accreditation and continuing education fees, and unexpected car repairs. But I do attribute my inability to pay those costs over the past year, in part, to more of my money going towards healthcare than I can sustainably afford, and more than is proportional to my income.

Since getting diagnosed with Autism and ADHD, I have been able to access a late-diagnosed Autistic Adults psychoeducation and skills group, and also have been working with an executive functioning coach once a month since last May. These resources have been huge in improving my daily functioning and quality of life-- as well as my understanding and skills around managing money specifically. Since May of 2025, I have been using an online budgeting tool called YNAB (essentially "envelope budgeting" but in app form). From June 2025 until December 2025, I was able to plateau the debt accumulation-- at around $2,500-- with diligence towards maintaining my budget and monitoring spending. However, when the year started over in January 2026, and my annual health insurance deductible reset (this year its $2900), I began having to use my credit card/ accumulating debt again because I have to pay for all healthcare costs at full price until I hit the deductible.

With the increased awareness of my precarious financial situation, and some needed emotional and task-based support from loved ones, I also was able to get a new job last month within my therapy specialization-- that will soon offer health insurance as an employee benefit! Now that I have started the new job, the full-time staff at my new employer has grown to seven people. This finally allows the therapy practice where I work to make a small group contract with a health insurance company, which the practice manager has been hammering out over the past couple of weeks. I should be able to access this benefit within the next few months.

Having access to employer-sponsored health insurance will be life changing for me. However, I did have to take a pay cut to take this position. Between the savings I anticipate gaining from employer health insurance, and the decrease in my hourly pay rate, it will end up balancing itself out. I should end up being in a very similar financial situation over the next 18 months than I have been in over the last few years. However, crucially: I will receive a $5/ hour raise at 18 months employment (retention raise), and a second $5 /hour raise at 24 months employment (because I will have been independently licensed for 5 years at that point). This means that, in 24 months, I will be making $10/ hour more than I am currently. Once I reach this point, I will be making more money per month reliably for the foreseeable future. (There were no opportunities for raises at my former employer.) I aim to start building a savings account, and make contributions to a retirement plan, at that two year point. And because I will get access to the employer-sponsored health insurance in the near future, I will no longer have to deal with premiums or deductibles as exorbitant as I have these past six years.

I currently have $3,400 in credit card debt. That number will raise by $2,000 as I pay down the remainder of my health insurance deductible via weekly therapy payments and other needed medical appointments (I have paid $864 in costs for medical appointments through month of January, out of the $2900 total deductible, leaving about $2K remaining).

So, I am asking for up to $5,400 to help me pay off the credit card and get out of debt.

Because I will be on employer-sponsored health insurance in a matter of months, I don't have to worry about extremely high monthly premiums or annual deductibles moving forward. Additionally, while I am initially taking an hourly pay cut in starting this new job, I will be making significantly more in two years than the job I left . I feel hopeful that, by continuing utilizing my budgeting system and executive functioning supports, I can stay out of credit card debt if I am able to dig myself out of this hole.

Thanks for considering helping me get back on my feet financially, and allowing me to establish financial security-- with my new job, new employer-sponsored health insurance, and ongoing budgeting practices. I appreciate you <3