dianabay

Hi medictoRN: There is no formal education in autism forRNs; I know...I searched and searched. I took the certificate program at JMU (James Madison University) in Harrisonberg, Virginia. The courses were 400 level courses in exceptional education; all of my classmates had their Masters in special education, so I learned a great deal from them. The courses were defintely geared toward classroom management, but absolutely applicable to all settings. It was an excellent program, and you can do it online! Since no one seems to be interested in me due to my lack of recent acute care experience, I am now considering doing some case management courses and hope to work in autism that way. Btw, my son has autism, and I wanted research-based information, not the myths you find online, thus my motivation for formally studying autism. It is a fascinating disorder! I would be happy to answer any questions or link you to any information I can. Diana

:chuckle I like your sense of humor, Forrester!

Originally posted by Forrester: "I'm not demonizing anyone for anything! I merely point out that being concerned only with your self interest does nothing to address the global concern over patient care. As to the comments regarding AONE and ANA, history indicts them. PS- It took several breaths" Forrseter: In one breath you made an excellent point about addressing this issue beyond our own interests AND you cracked me up! :chuckle........or was it in two breaths? :wink2:

Baby heart: First, I can't begin to tell you how sorry I am that your family has had to endure such a nightmare. It is cruel to put parents of a chronically ill child through such additional stress. You should be able to concentrate on your son's well-being. Anyone who believes in holistic care can readily see how such stress takes your energy away from your son and the healing process. I have said that for every horror story I hear about a single-payor system (and there are), I can tell you two about the current system here. Unfortunately Babyheart, your family is a perfect horror story. It must have been very difficult for you to share your story with us; thank you for doing that. I wish your family and your little boy the very best, and will keep you in my thoughts.... Di

OOps just noticed this thread was a while ago.....duh:zzzzz

That sounds like a well-thought out program. Wish it could always be like that. Of course others have a point about the expense. But I think we may pay either way, as Deyo suggested. Do we pay up front and try to give baby (and hopefully mom - yeah, I know I'm an idealist) a positive start; or do we pay later when this child (likely) also ends up in the system?

"I had all these tests done including an MRI and the insurance company denied all my claims saying that the employer never submitted the correct paperwork for me. I had to pay it all myself and lost all my savings. We did not have the money to get a lawyer and fight it. Thousands of dollars, gone. Horrible experience. What about all those premiums we paid????" cxg, that is horrible...I am so sorry. To add that kind of stress when a person is at their most vulnerable is simply inhumane. Are you okay now?

"If your healthcare is free there is no incentive not to use the ER or take an ambulance to the hospital." If your health care is free, there is no incentive not to go to your primary doctor for minor health matters (before they become big health matters) or to have a yearly exam to catch problems in the early stages- when they are far less expensive to treat. If you have no insurance, there is a disincentive to have a yearly check-up or go to your GP with a minor health problem because it will cost money. But you can wait until the problem gets worse and go the ER where you cannot be turned away. At a free clinic where I did diabetic teaching, most of my patients had been in and out of the ER because they could not afford primary care including counseling on diet, consultation with docs to adjust insulins etc. As soon as they had access to primary care at our clinic, not one of my patients ended up in the ER. Another example: A lady with no insurance forgoes her annual check-up and pap smear. She develops symptoms, then decides to go to a GP or to the ER. She has cervical cancer (which if caught in the early stages would have been very curable). Instead, she has mets and the cost to treat her will be astronomical in comparison to what it would have cost to treat early stage cervical ca. "While medical interventions can clearly benefit individual clients, evidence suggests that they do not result in a corresponding improvement in population health" (Mustard and Frank, 1991). "Thus, resources should be allocated to those promotive and preventative services that address social and environmental health" (Munro et al., 2001, p. 45). In other words, ensuring access to primary and preventative care is cost-effective.

You're welcome, Sehille. Indeed, you are right- if you can't pay, you don't get care. I volunteer at a clinic for the uninsured and under-insured; good, hard-working people who caught a bad break and/or whose illness make the cost of individual coverage prohibitive, as you said. And so, I consider our family extremely fortunate. I had to laugh when you said the insurance companies try to pull tricks like saying you filled in the application wrong. We had been with this insurance company for 10 years. When hubby lost his job, we got individual coverage through the exact same company. They refused to pay any claims until "an investigation" was completed, citing that we had not disclosed our son's possible autism. How dumb would we have to be?! Like I said earlier, I don't have enough unbiased, reliable information to comment intelligently on whether I think Obama's plan would be a good or bad thing for the USA. And I think people SHOULD question how it will affect them. I would like people to question the source of these apocalyptic predictions- who would reform be apocolyptic for? The insurance companies, for sure- they would no longer be able to keep only the healthy and 'cull' the sick through outrageous premiums. You take good care, too. :wink2:

It is true, CRNA, that we do end up paying for some who have made poor choices. But, take me for an example. I came from poverty. My summers as a teenager were spent working in a fish plant to save money for nursing school. While in nursing school, I worked 36 hours a week to avoid student loans and to send money home to my family. Married a guy who also paid his dues. Then I had a child with special needs and had to stay home. Then hubby lost his job and our health benefits; his new job doesn't offer insurance. Now that our child has been formally diagnosed, I am waiting for the cancellation letter (they already tried when they saw that our son was 'suspected' of having autism). In the individual market with a pre-existing condition, I can't even imagine what the premium will be. I only know that we will not be able to afford it. While it is true that some people do not have health insurance because they made/make poor choices, the notion that most, if not all, of the people who do not have health insurance are dead-beats is inaccurate. And I don't think our family is the hard-working exception.

My husband and I "EARNED" our health insurance for years and years. But then he lost his job (and thus our affordable group health insurance). Call me crazy, but I have never, in 30+ years of working, minded that some of my tax money went to provide health care to someone less fortunate.

Take good care, and please let us know what happens. Sending positive energy and thoughts your way.... Di

"if they budgeted they could afford to have it" We do not have the best insurance, we don't have the worst. But at nearly ten thousand a year for 3 healthy people...... If our household income was 20- 30K year, it would take a budget miracle to make that affordable.

"Healthcare should be a human right, not a privalage!" You speak my language, Gerry. For those of us stuck with individual heath insurance, here is the reality: For a family of 3: $700/ month X 12 = 8400/ yr Deductible of 500 each/yr =1500/yr + 30% copay We are looking at nearly 10,000 a year- before anyone gets sick. When a doctor wrote that he suspected my son had autism, they tried to cut him off. I don't know what they were worried about; we had already used up our (measly) allownace for Occupational therapy- the only thing they covered anyway. At ten grand plus a year, I would call it a privelege. Now that my son has been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, let's see how long that privelege lasts.

Dear rollyp80: I'll try. I keep hearing nightmare stories about how it will be like Canada where everyone waits 6-9 months for treatments, surgeries etc., etc. I have never had to wait for anything, nor has any person I have EVER known. But some DO wait. It depends partly on where you are; for example, if there is a shortage of the very specialist you need...because they went to the USA where they DO make more money. But some have taken an isolated incident in a remote area and touted it as the norm everywhere in Canada. You can not compare a remote town in Northern Ontario with Los Angeles anymore than you can compare a remote town in Iowa with a city like Toronto. I worked rehab in Toronto for 5 years before moving to the USA. My first job was on a rehab unit in San Diego. I was shocked to find the pay was much less than what I had been making. I had bought into the notion that the USA paid more. I do not have enough information about the proposed reforms to comment intelligently on that. But if it's any consolation, Canada has a single payor system and (again, depending on where you are) nurses salaries are comparable.