Monday, 26 March 2012
-
The Financial Needs of Children with Autism
Raising a child with Autism always has it's challenges, one being that many parents have to pay for services out of pocket.Did you know that one service, ABA Therapy, could cost as much as $1,400 per month (or more)?
Only 29 states require insurance companies to cover for this Therapy at this time. Many states only require it only for a few years.
For example, the state of Virginia only requires Insurance to cover for ABA Therapy from ages 2-8. That's only 6 years, but at least it's something.
Now many in the Autism Community still struggle from paycheck to paycheck, trying to juggle bills left and right.
I'm no financial expert, but you don't have to be one to see that every now and then it may be possible for a bill to get lost in the shuffle.
I found out the other day from a friend of mine that their Water was turned off due to lack of payment.
It isn't like they ran out of funds, it's just that they were juggling some bills and the water bill payment was missed.
Of course this caused a challenge during their bathtime routines in the evening for their child who has autism.
We all make mistakes, I told him. He said it's ok, as he got an interesting little tidbit of information from the city.
The city water facility was able to inform him that there could be a medical flag put onto the account, so long as a doctor signed a form.
It doesn't mean that the bill doesn't get paid (as the money would still be due) - it just means that the city would take an extra step and work with you further before any action on turning the water off would be taken.
This helps in those situations where routines don't get hindered in say - bath time.
So if this situation ever happened again - the city would take a couple of extra steps in trying to reach the customer before turning the water off.
Hey, any extra help with juggling the bills is always a good thought, right? So I just had to share with everyone.
Do you find yourself juggling bills at times? What tips could you share in helping out with budgetary needs and raising a child with Autism?
Related Posts
Post a Comment
- Back to autisable's Autisable Site!
- Note: your comment will appear in autisable's local time zone: GMT -05:00 (Eastern Standard - US, Canada)
About the Author
-
- From: Joel
- Name: Joel
- Location: Norfolk, Virginia, United States
- About Me: Husband. Father of a child with Autism. Lead Editor of Autisable.com
-
Premium
Stats: This Week All Time Posts: 0 84 Views: 0 73584 Comments: 0 103 View all posts by Joel
Comments (3)
I know this is a little of topic. A child with autism is a big responsibility. Any child is a big responsibility. Viewing children from a financial perspective, should not the parents have saved up a large sum of money before even thinking of having a child. Should they not also be in a position to hold down a well paying steady job. Because anything could go wrong, medical conditions, prem birth, child could be on autism spectrum so many things.
Bringing a child into this world is a major decision, should parents not have planned out the financial ramifications of a child before considering having one.
This just makes logical sense to me, I by no means wish to offend people.
@fadeing_hallucinations@xanga - Because things in life don't always go as planned. People get pregnant on birth control, people get laid off from work, people loose their savings with bad investments and divorces. Life happens. You don't have control over everything and you can't always plan for everything. I think this is hard for people to understand who haven't lived something like this. Someday if you go through something similar you might understand. People who think they have complete control usually have life hit them hard in the face when they least expect it.
I admire the valuable information you offer in your articles. I will bookmark your blog and have my children check up here often. I am quite sure they will learn lots of new stuff here than anybody else!