We've all seen the new autism rates from the CDC. And it's not over-diagnosis. How would I know? After the squiggle I'll give you my two cents.
I work in the autism community. I have for the past 10+ years and my wife has been serving children with autism for nearly 15 years.
We've seen the increase in children first hand. I truly feel that autism incidence rates are perpetually increasing with no signs of slowing. CDC reports 76% increase since 2002 alone. In 2007, the California Department of Developmental Services examined 20 years of diagnosis in the state and found an over 13% average yearly increase in students with autism.
Sadly, we aren't diagnosing enough.
Here in central California (Monterey/Salinas), we don't have a doctor/pediatrician/neurologist who will diagnose children on the autism spectrum. Over in Fresno (nearly a million people), they don't have one either. They refer out to Stanford or UC Davis which typically have 6 month backlogs of appointments. How many other communities do not have qualified doctors/pediatricians/neurologists who have the skill set to diagnose?
Families across the country live in communities just like mine - with almost no access to a qualified diagnostician. Which leads to late implementation of early education services, like Applied Behavior Analysis, which can help these children reduce problematic behaviors.
But that's merely one issue to this complicated puzzle. And that one issue alone fills conference hall discussions and leads parent groups to form.
The biggest issue that almost no one is talking about is the MONEY BOMB that is lining up to club Medicare and Social Security over the head. I'm not here to regurgitate talking points on social security solvency or the ACA.
Just to avoid confusion - I support single payer and think the ACA is a step in the right direction.
The problem I want to encourage people to start thinking about is the fact that a certain percentage of the autism population are going to require residential care for significant portions of their lives. Care that is paid for by Medicare. When these children grow up and start being housed in these facilities is right around the corner. Around that same corner are the baby boomers. They are going to significantly tax the social security system and medicare.
Combine the two populations - and we're talking about a significant tax burden.
Wondering about the lifetime costs for persons with autism? Check out this study here. $3.2 million per capita. Some may say that number is crazy-talk. Seeing how much autism services cost first hand - that number is no BS.
I know, I know, I know....shift some of our military spending and we'll be fine. I agree. Our tax priorities are completely out of whack!!!
But with the current political turmoil gridlocking progress in favor of all the crap we've recently seen (contraception, birtherism, ect.), we're in for a doozy if people don't start talking about this.
Just wanted to throw something out there that has been missing from these new autism incidence rate statistics and news coverage.