1. We have private insurance. We went to our first visit with an Autism clinic in Chicago last week for behavior therapy. It was just me and Chris and we were talking with a social worker who said on multiple occasions "Well, since you guys have private insurance..." which would be followed by statements such as: "the waitlist for speech therapy won't be as long", "we can get you in right away". This is the only clinic in the city that accepts public aid and the waitlist is much longer. I understand this model because the clinic needs the additional money that private insurance will bring in, so quotas are necessary to keep it running. After diagnosing him, his developmental pediatrician looked at his record and said "Oh good, you have private insurance. More services will be available to you." As autism is one of those conditions where early treatment is vital, I'm thankful to not have to sit on an interminable and unpredictable waiting list. There is certainly a lot more to say and do with respect to advocacy for those children who need but cannot get services, but I simply do not have the capacity for that at the moment.
2. This diagnosis is actually a blessing. Had she not diagnosed him with autism (and not diagnosed him so quickly), we would be stuck with 60 total therapy visits. As he's currently getting speech and OT weekly, that number would get chewed through quickly. Illinois has an Autism Insurance Mandate that requires that insurance cover up to $36,000 of therapy and services for children diagnosed with autism. Chris called our insurance company last week and they said that we have unlimited therapy visits and no dollar amount cap. Without this diagnosis, he'd still have delays but we'd have significantly fewer resources for addressing it.
3. We have a car. This is a point that may seem inconsequential to my suburban friends who have two or more cars at their disposal, but many people in the city are without a car. Elias currently has speech therapy at a hospital close to us, but has OT in the suburbs (we could not get him into the pediatric OT where he does speech because they weren't accepting new patients). The aforementioned Autism clinic is a solid 20-30 minute car ride depending on traffic. If we did not have a car, I'd be at the mercy of public transportation (sometimes unreliable) or perhaps a very generous friend/family member with a car and time to shuttle me to therapy visits.
4. I don't have a job. Since I'm in grad school (and boy, was that ever fun to have him diagnosed at the end of the semester when I was writing papers and finishing up work for the semester: picture me writing a paper about metadata schema and googling "autism therapy" in tandem), I am able to take him to these therapy visits, I am able to do lots of research (perhaps too much), make phone calls, etc. These things can certainly done if I were working, but I have the flexibility now to do these things.
4a. We live in the age of the Internet AND I have access in my home. This means that I can do unprecedented amounts of research on my child's condition as well as find doctors and facilities, not to mention connect with the general autism community at large. For an information junkie like myself, this is a gift.
5. We live in Chicago. Living in a large city gives us close proximity to an expanse of resources that we would not have access to if we lived in a rural community. In fact, Chicago and its suburbs offer an embarrassment of riches with respect to therapies, clinics, doctors, etc. for children with autism. That is, if you have private insurance, not to mention reliable transportation. Now, my opinion on the blessing of living in Chicago will likely change as we march towards obtaining an IEP for him, but for now, I'm thankful.
6. Lastly, but most importantly, because this boy is our son:
2 comments:
Beautiful outlook, beautiful boy. ❤️
Thank you for this.
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