4w ago

UnitedHealth Is Strategically Limiting Access to Critical Treatment for Kids With Autism

www.propublica.org UnitedHealth Is Strategically Limiting Access to Critical Treatment for Kids With Autism

Leaked internal documents show that the insurance giant is culling providers of applied behavior analysis from its network and scrutinizing the medical necessity of therapy. Advocates say the company’s strategy may be illegal.

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I'm all in favor of shitting on UHC, but ABA for autism is rather problematic, so they're actually on the same page as the autism community on this one.
EDIT: For those unfamiliar with it, it's basically the autism equivalent of gay conversion therapy, trying to convert autistic children to neurotypical behavior. It's not good for the autistic person's own mental health.
- I am an autistic person with an autistic child. “Therapies” that try to get us to act like you should be illegal. And stupid, we evolved as part of humanity for a reason.
  I masked my whole life, I don't want my kid to be forced to as well.
  Cure ableism not Autism.
  
  I'm autistic as well, although I was not diagnosed with it as a kid (they only diagnosed me with a "learning disability" rather than the complicated soup of neurodivergences I have).
  I've been lucky to not have to mask much in my life (although I do some, for sure). It's a tragedy that most autistic kids are treated worse than I was. I think they all deserve better.
- We kept hearing this as well, but our personal experience has been the opposite. I think ABA therapy has changed dramatically over the years and shouldn't be generalized as such. ABA seeks to understand behavior and includes that which is unseen. Specific therapists have certainly been problematic over the years though.
  
  The proof will be in what your child tells you, when they feel able to do so.
  
  I'm on the fence here, but I think this might be an oversimplification. One of their key challenges was inability to communicate, and it was grossly affecting their happiness. Young children should never be that sad and depressed. Parents have to infer a lot of information, and this increases by several orders of magnitude with ASD children.
  We're obviously pro-autism, as pretending someone's brain chemistry is not real benefits no one. ABA has helped overcome mole hills before they become mountains.
  
  I'm a nonverbal autistic.
  
  ABA was highly recommended for my 3 year old, but we did some research and were put off by some of the horror stories. My local school system fortunately has a 3K program for children with developmental disabilities so we decided to just lean on that and revisit our ABA decision later if needed
  
  I understand what you mean. The horror stories made us very wary, and we asked a lot of questions before feeling confident that we were talking about an entirely different experience.
- I've seen firsthand ABA help plenty of high intensity Autistic children. When a kid is maturating in class constantly or doing tons of self harm, you need to try psychological methods to change that behavior. The equivalent of gay conversion therapy? I have never seen such a whackadoodle take.

22 comments