Why does receiving government assistance disqualify me from being a surrogate?

Learn the answer to this week's user-submitted question about surrogacy in this week's installment of Ask a Surrogacy Expert! Have a question about surrogacy that you'd like answered? Submit it at brightfuturesfamilies.com/ask

Hey, it's Jennifer White, CEO of Bright Futures Families Surrogacy, with this week's question, which is: Why does receiving government assistance disqualify me from being a gestational surrogate? And it's a great question. It's one that we get asked all the time. I see in all of the big, you know, surrogacy groups on Facebook and other places and things like that. And there's. It's a really divisive question, quite honestly. The biggest reason is that usually if you are receiving government assistance, and this is not a hard and fast rule, but this is. Is a kind of a very generalized question. Answer right here is that usually that means that your income is on the lower end because you've qualified for that. That's not always true, like I said. So if you haven't qualified for financial reasons, if there are other reasons, that changes the equation completely. And it's a completely different conversation. But the reason that that becomes concerning is that we want to make sure that you, as a gestational carrier are financially stable. And I know the next argument is, well, I am financially stable, totally fine. Just happen to also be receiving benefits. And that's fantastic. And that's something that if you make the decision that you want to come off of those benefits totally fine. We also, I've seen some agencies who will say, hey, if you come off by the time you're going to transfer, things like that, that's possible. We prefer you to be off and financially stable before that point in time. But the biggest reason, of course, is that, you know, people go, well, I can't. Why can't I just stay on? Well, you are potentially going to be making income that needs to be record reported to any government entity that's qualifying you. And any amount of income can potentially push you over that threshold and make you lose those benefits. The biggest and most concerning of those is if you lose your children's health insurance. And we really want to make sure that your children and you and your whole family are protected through this entire surrogacy journey. The intended parents are required to pay for your health insurance, but they are not requ to pay for your children's insurance. So if something happens and they get booted off of their insurance, what are you going to do? And if it's something that you've thought about and you're like, hey, if that happens, I will take out an exchange policy, we will work through it, things like that, fantastic. But we really want to make sure that everybody is really informed about the consequences about any decisions that they possibly make. So please, please, always happy to continue having this conversation and talk about the nuances and the whys and the, you know, if a situation is unique for you or something that we can do differently, please, please, don't hesitate, reach out. Thanks.