Up on my Pedestal

So although I don’t plan on using this as a forum to talk about political items or government policies or those sorts of things……. I am going to use this as a moment to talk about our recent experience with Insurance.  Until this year other than myself we have been under Pete’s insurance the coverage is comparable to mine but, the cost is about 75% cut from mine.  We are also fortunate enough to be working for two companies that provide good insurance -- even at a cost.

During Michael’s assessment our coordinators encouraged us to call our Insurance carriers to figure out the type of insurance plan we had and if it was self-funded.  In our dazed look that we must have been projecting they continued to go on to explain to us why this was important.  They explained, that to-date most states have mandated coverage of therapy for autistic children.  Although this is mandated coverage in CT, if the plan is self-funded the company has discretion on what they cover. One of these “optional” items includes therapy for autistic children.  Lucky for us we are in the middle of open enrollment so Pete started by making his calls. We learned his plan was self-funded. Upon further research we were able to find out that it is exactly the services we need, that they need that they consider “optional” and not covered.  Although my plan is self-funded, lucky for us they do cover services for autistic children including therapy with OT, PT, BT, etc.  Just at a much larger expense (about 200% higher than we were paying).

So circling back to my first line. In a country that is prosperous, named  “the land of opportunity” it is absolutely atrocious that proven medical conditions and medical science is not evenly available – especially when children are involved. As I think of people in our lives that faced with the denial of coverage or inability to absorb the extra expense that they would not have the same level of intense care that we are obtaining. I also feel fortunate that we are lucky enough that one of us has insurance to cover what we need, and double lucky that we have the financial ability to absorb our increase in costs to get Michael what he needs – but, it should never come to that.

Today I exercised my vote…