jdlech It’s been a while since my last post. Since losing my manufacturing job to the Republican recession, I’ve been busy. I went back into a big rig and now drive “recovery” for a large trucking company. Essentially, I repossess big rigs. The Republican Recession keeps me busy. It pays most of the bills.
“So what are the conservatives doing THIS time”, you might ask? They are trying to eliminate medicare for everyone under the age of 55. Well, that happens to include my 9 year old autistic son, and every disabled child of parents like us. Currently, his mother cannot work because there is no daycare in the area equipped to handle the special needs of autistic children. This means someone has to be there when he is not at school – which seems to be about once every other week. No employer can be reasonably expected to lose their employee at least one to three days every other week on an ongoing and irregular basis. And then there’s the shortened summer curriculum (when there is one at all). So his mother cannot work.
This leaves my income alone to pay for everything. And his medications amount to many $$thousands per year; plus his psychologist and psychiatrist. (the psychologist is cheaper, but a psychiatrist is necessary to adjust his medications – which happens about once every few months. This amounts to thousands of dollars per year that we cannot afford. Currently, medicaid pays for all this.
Instead he get’s a “voucher” for private insurance – which barely pays for psychologists. Forget psychiatrists, and most of the psychotropic medications he needs. Even today, private insurers largely deny covering mental disorders – including autism. They prefer covering only the barest minimum possible. It’s kicking the can down the street his entire life and leaving parents and society to tolerate the cost of doing so.
What is he like without his medication? Imagine a child unable to cope with even the smallest of changes in his life. Imagine a young boy who will go to any lengths to keep things exactly as he remembers them. Now imagine this child willing to go to any extreme of violence for even the smallest thing. That’s severe autism without medication. Even with medication, he has beaten, scratched, and bitten his mother so severely that she needed medical attention. And he was not even 9 yet. As he grows older and larger, his capacity for violence will only grow as well.
But if conservatives get their way, medicaid will no longer cover his medication. My son, (who is on disability, btw), will either have to go without medication, or without a roof over his head and food in his belly. Without his medication, we may very well need a straight jacket and padded cell – or worse, we may not be able to keep him at all.
Think I’m kidding? I’m not.
Worse, I know there are thousands of families in far worse shape than mine. Conservatives will be taking away the only means they have of keeping their families together. Tens of thousands of families will be forced to give their child to the state because they cannot afford the medications and doctor bills. For them, medicaid is the ONLY means of obtaining the help their children need. For them, life without medicaid is life without their child. Without it, the only means they have of giving these children the help they need is to give them up; to hand them over to the state. This will be the only option they have left. Understand, every single family forced to give their child up will do so out of love; because it’s the only way these children can get the help they need.
For these children, tearing them away from their parents and placing them into foster care or an institution will devastate them. Autism is characterized by the inability to cope with changes. Such radical change would not just scar them forever; it would destroy the psyches of many.
So the next time you hear a conservative talk about family values, ask them why they hate the families of autistic children so much that they would destroy thousands of them.
I’ll bet a cup of coffee that you’ll hear something about how it’s the parents fault or some stupid joke to dodge the issue, or some such nonsense.
And by the way, conservatives are also talking about changing social security too. Might I remind you that disability is part of social security. Cons don’t want to say it, but they want to eliminate the only income for millions of people living on disability. They really don’t give a darn what happens to these people. Just ask them how these people are to survive without their only source of income. You’ll rarely get a straight answer because the only straight answer is “we’ll let them die”.
At the risk of being accused of invoking Godwin’s Law, Adolph also started with the disabled.
Well, here’s news. No matter how it happens, I will make darn sure my son gets the best care available – even if that means giving him up.
