This year Lynn Cooper will mark a special milestone.

January 22nd, 2024, I will have 34 years of recovery for alcoholism.

And she says one thing that's helped her stay sober for so long is ongoing support through therapy.

An important part of my sustaining my recovery has always been seeking mental health services, mental health treatment for depression and anxiety.

I was doing great. I found a wonderful therapist. You was a licensed marriage and family therapist and I had been seeing her for about six years.

But then Cooper's therapist gave her some disappointing news.

About six months before I turned 65,

she told me that she was not going to be able to see me anymore because of the fact that I was going to be on Medicare.

That's because at the time licensed professional counselors and licensed marriage and family counselors didn't accept Medicare, the Federal Health Insurance Program, available to most Americans at age 65.

I was just stunned because she was a licensed marriage and family therapist and she was

terrific and she was helping me a lot.

There was no way that I could afford to pay out of pocket.

You know, it just would have been just way too expensive.

I started looking for a new therapist, and that's where I ran into trouble

because there were very few therapists that accepted Medicare.

Even though Cooper is herself a behavioral health policy specialist,

her job is helping seniors find mental health services.

So it was shocking to me that for the first time in my 60 at that time 64 years on the planet

I couldn't access health care, and it was because I had

Medicare.

Cooper ended up on a waiting list.

It took six months to get an appointment with a social worker

...