Friday, September 4, 2009

Go, Kim, Go!!!

Seeing that I've done a lot of blog reading and not a lot of blog writing in the last several days, I thought I would share something I came across this evening. Actually, to avoid confusion, I get on the Age of Autism website every few days. To refer to this as "something I came across" sounds as though I stumbled onto it by accident, which isn't the case. Either way, I found it of interest and wanted to link directly to it......

Kim Stagliano (of Age of Autism)
Speaks at Town Hall Meeting

I think the point that stood out to me most was when Kim mentioned the shock this Congressman had at hearing of the financial devastation so many families of children with autism face. These guys are so high in the clouds, they need to be brought down several notches into the reality the rest of us are living in. Seriously......

When we first began this journey ourselves, I came across a figure that estimated 80% of families with at least one child with autism will claim bankruptcy at some point. Unfortunately, I found this tidbit of information at a time when I felt very lost and overwhelmed in a sea of information and therefore, do not have a source to cite.

Regardless of the lack of a source, knowing how our own medical bills have progressively mounted over the last year or so, it does not surprise me if the estimation is accurate. We have gone from "pretty comfortable" to financially planning for the unexpected-and-possibly-thousands-of-dollars-out-of-pocket (many autism-related treatments are not even covered by health insurance) worth of medical bills that seem to pop up for us every few months. Reiss' seizure back in June being the most recent.

Having said that, if this is our own situation, I can't help but think how devastating it must be for families who are in much less cushy - for lack of a better word - financial situations than our own. So very sad, yet something these politicians need to understand. They need to hear it again and again and again and...............

We are not going away and we will not back down.

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