I saw the results of a study this morning that gave the total cost of raising a child (in our lingo, a neurotypical child) into adulthood. Let’s compare that to the cost given by a Harvard study a couple of years ago on the cost to raise an autistic child into adulthood.
Average cost of raising a neurotypical child – $290,000
Average cost of raising an autistic child – $3,200,000
But wait! The mathematically astute among you will notice that the second amount doesn’t quite add up logically. Not many people even make that much in income over 18 years. A chunk of that is because health care and educational expenses are factored into that number regardless of who pays for it (parents, insurers, Medicaid, local schools, states, etc.), but there’s another big chunk that most no one – other than parents with autistic kids -thinks about.
In many families with autistic children, one of the parents reduces their work hours or stops working altogether in order to care for their child, learn all the therapies, be their advocate, etc. I freelance when I have time, but my net revenue per year is maybe 20-25% of what I would get paid to work full-time in the corporate world.
The reality for me is that I took a 75-80% pay cut to take the greatest job in the world – being the stay-at-home dad for two awesome kids. But there’s another reality. Until there is greater access to care and serious health care and education reform in the U.S., the financial costs of all this will continue to grow more and more rapidly. So far, we’ve been lucky. I know of plenty of families on the verge of drowning.
But the J-Man is neither a statistic nor a dollar amount. If we had to sell our last pair of shoes, we’d do it. The moral of the story is, no one should have to.
Posts that hopefully are similar:
- Autism, Medical Expenses, and Tax Time in Our Family
- Out of the House and Temporarily Back to the ‘Real World’
- Mental Health Gets Bailed Out Too! And Disability Rights Activists Get a Two-Fer!
- Sensory Processing Disorder and the DSM-V – Call to Action
- Sensory Processing Disorder and the DSM-V – Call to Action (Urgent Update!)
- This Just In – Dads Can Parent Too
- Starting to Sink In
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Just wanted to say that I teach autistic children in my mainstreamed math high school classes and so I hope to gain a bit more insight into the lives of my kids and their families by reading your blog. You write so very well and openly about your challenges. Thank you for that.
Hi Kim! Thanks for reading and for writing a comment. It means a lot to us when people take the time to do that.
I’ve been intending to put together a list of blogs I read that are written by autistic adults. They provide many insights on the sorts of issues people face as they move toward adulthood and the challenges of education, vocation, family, independence, disability rights, and much more. All sorts of things on my to-do list have remained undone with new baby, summer break, and everything else, but this will motivate me to finally work on that.
There’s also a book called “Ten Things Your Student With Autism Wishes You Knew” written by Ellen Notbohm. I haven’t read that book, but I have read her “Ten Things Every Child With Autism Wishes You Knew” and found it enormously insightful. I’d check out her writings if you get a chance.
Thanks again for writing!
Health care… shudder. We have good health insurance and the bills still make me tear my hair and scream. People are always so down on socialized medicine like the NHS, but I’ve only gotten quite good healthcare from the NHS. I know their refusal of coverage (mainly on grounds of ineffectiveness) can be frustrating, but look at how much people spend on statins and Avastin and how little good it does.
Jenny – Don’t know whether you saw the whole thing with the Investor’s Business Daily editorial about Stephen Hawking and the NHS (can’t link now because the original has been redacted after they were called on their stupidity). For those who didn’t, that editorial argued that Stephen Hawking – who has had ALS for about 2/3 of his surprisingly long life – never would have had a chance in the National Health Service in the UK, despite the rather provable fact that Hawking actually lives and has lived in the UK.
This pretty much captures the state of the health care reform debate here in the U.S. We are drowning in both unchecked stupidity and an insatiable need by so many to scream and spew ‘facts’ without bothering to even check that any part of them is remotely true.
I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know what’s the best approach to solving our health care and insurance disaster here. But my overriding beliefs are that anything that doesn’t acknowledge that our current system is completely broken is a non-starter, and let’s at least insure everybody and make sure they have access to care and then worry about how to fix whatever we discover is broken or frustrating or inefficient about it. Let’s not worry about wasting some water when the building is on fire; we can deal with that later.
The big hurdle we’ll have to clear is that not everything can be covered. There’s not enough money on the earth for that. But where do you draw that line? And that battle will likely be even worse than the current one, and one that may provoke (another) civil war in the world of autism as everybody tries to get their therapy covered, no matter how outlandish, ineffective, or expensive it is.
But to circle back around, I’m really tired of hearing about the Canadian boogeyman of health care. (I guess we’ve branched out to the UK lately too.) Is that type of system perfect? No. Nothing is. But periodic frustration is not a bad price to pay vs. denial of care, bankruptcy, and death. Hyperbole? Probably. But I’m not the one invoking the Soviet Union in this debate like many here are. (Sheesh!)
I think people should be required to offer a better plan rather than reflexively say No to everything and blame Canada, or the UK, or whatever.
OK, I didn’t mean to write on that long and endlessly shake my verbal fist at many of my fellow citizens.
Thanks for your (very informed!) comment!
i just foun this pace tonight,it is very infomative,i to have a child with autism and a normal one also .my wife had to quit her job also to stay at home.he is in pre k now which is good he is 4 but has the mind of a 2 yr old.it is hard on us some days.we all have to stand up and get our gov to listen,or it will get worse.there is not much help in las vegas nv for our son not when this state is last in about every catagory educ.med.living