As a counselor who has worked with families and clients on the Autism Spectrum for over 18 years, I have seen it go from a disorder that people have no clue what it is to almost every person knowing at least one person they are close to having it or being affected by it. One would think seeing the Autism rates jumping from 1/10,000 in 2000 to 1/59 in 2018 would make voters demand their politicians take action in making sure every American has access to quality treatment…but I guess most of us didn’t get the message and instead are too pre-occupied with border walls and whether Donald Trump is a racist.
The sad truth is that while people privately will express concern about autism and whether their child will be born with it, politically we seem to get caught up in the tabloid BS that out media and politicians are peddling. The sad truth is that quality early intervention therapy can cost upwards of $60,000 a year and much of that is not covered by your insurance and partially covered by your state Medicaid programs. Schools have an additional cost of $18,000 per student per year who are on the spectrum and if they already are short staffed now when the autism rates were 1/500, imagine what it will be like in 10 years when babies born today at the 1/59 rate enter the school system. If you aren’t scared yet, most coverage only covers to age 7, and ask any parents of a child on the spectrum what it is like having a teenager on the spectrum and see what the costs for therapy, tutoring or even worse a private therapeutic school that will cost upwards of $50,000 a year.
What about the adult autistic children who will need care much beyond the college years? How does that work on a fixed retirement income? You can try an long term care community but places like 29 Acres in Texas are charging $60,000 per year for long term care. The truth is that not only is our government totally neglecting this important issue, they have no idea how in trouble school districts will be in a few years or how much the social security disability budget is going to explode. How do I know? Because I help my clients on the spectrum in their 20’s get on SSDI and sometimes its the only way to help them and their parents support their children for basic needs like rent.
We have a huge problem on our hands and to make matter worse we have private clinicians and organizations completely taking advantage of the situation and gouging families for insane costs. They have basically made it to where there is tiered care for autistic clients and their families where only the wealthy can get the care that is needed. The schools and programs pat themselves on the backs and have elaborate galas and fundraisers where they pat themselves on the backs for offering free or discounted tuition for a few clients while 85% of their clients/residents are wealthy individuals who pay fill rate and they make a killing, often opening up multiple locations across the country. Where is our government in policing this matter? They step in during hurricane emergencies to make sure no one is price gouging during an emergency so why aren’t they stepping up here? We talk about curing autism now but what about treating autism now? Oh wait that’s right….it’s treating autism now for the rich. I just don’t know how these people sleep at night…very comfortably I suppose.
To dive into this topic I am joined by my good friend Bill Reed of the Arm Chair QB Blog and Ginger the Female Voice of The Radical Center. Join us 12/17/2018 at 7:00est/6:00cst in our quest to bring this important topic to light and help us force our elected officials to actually do something for the people that elected them and prioritize the right things.
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