Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Going Broke Raising Special Needs Kids?

There was some mention on another blog about how people are affording expensive therapies for their special needs kids. My reply was that I enrolled both my kids in the Mass Health insurance program because they are disabled. And for about 100.00 per month, I was able to afford speech and OT therapy—for both my kids—a couple of times per week at a local rehab. hospital. This was in addition to their school’s therapy time. I also found a fund, through my local Arc, offered for residents living on the south shore of Boston, to be reimbursed for therapy equipment or social skills classes (as I did for my kids) and the like. Meghan’s school (residential school) is paid for by our school system—and a good thing, too, because there was no way that I could afford the school on our own even with two incomes (a 255,000 per year price tag).

My daughter is also a clothes ripper—as some may know from one of my posts. So I was relieved that Steve and Barry’s had affordable clothes for one ripper of a girl, but, sadly, they are going out of business. I’m crushed, now I have to got back to Old Navy and pay double…

Some other people mentioned do-it-yourself therapies, by learning these skills and helping their own kids.

How do you do it?

2 comments:

Bonnie sayers said...

In CA we have the regional center system. Although now they are out of money due to the CA budget crisis and no new budget signed yet.

Thanks for the link to the autism blogger on your blog, I joined last nite after clicking that on from your blog.

Nice to see you commenting over at autism vox too.

Christina said...

We are lucky that my husband owns his own company and therefore can choose exactly what kind of health insurance our family needs. We do have a very high annual deductible (which we blow through fast -- so January-March is always tough), but then after that everything is covered 100 percent. For therapy that is. Not school. Luckily, the school Evan had been attending uses a sliding fee for everyone.

But we have also been unlucky. I had to pay ALL the medical bills for my pregnancy. Everything from doctor visits to tests to labor and delivery. So I know exactly how lucky we are to have my husband's insurance right now.