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.
  
  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'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.

Regardless of the effectiveness of ABA, this is not a clinical position being taken by UHC, it's a strategic plan that labels autistic children as a burden to their shareholders, an endeavors to shed this burden. It's exactly this kind of ghoulish logic that have normies cheering the murder of insurance executives.
People are waking up to the reality that for-profit health insurance is a parasitic scheme to collect premiums and deny care. The people who profit from this system, the ones who design, and improve upon it, are morally bankrupt and an active threat to the health and well being of most Americans.
I don't call for them to die like Osama Bin Laden, I call for them to live like him, afraid and in hiding.
- Why bin laden when they could go like hussein?

While ABA is not without its criticisms, especially for cases where the kids are already better able to function day-to-day and ABA is used to strongly encourage masking (back in the day they'd literally just beat kids down with both carrot and stick to get them to pretend to be "normal"), getting severely affected kids to engage and talk is basically what it's best at, and yeah, you don't just get "better" from ASD.
Fucking horrific by UHC, as usual, and you know ABA is not the only care getting this kind of "analysis."

The insurer that has been paying for her son’s therapy, UnitedHealthcare, has begun — to the befuddlement of his clinical team — denying him the hours they say he requires to maintain his progress. Inside the insurance conglomerate, the nation’s largest and most profitable, the slashing of care to children like Benji does have a reason, though it has little to do with their needs. It is part of a secret internal cost-cutting campaign that targets a growing financial burden for the company: the treatment of thousands of children with autism across the country.
This company is the most disgusting of scum. It's truly hard to comprehend.
- MAGAs wank to eugenic based policies.
  These people don't believe in the value of life. They believe in the value of money and envy.

I don’t think we deposed enough of them to count

🤨
Ay yo where them board of directors at?
Need more Green Marios to attend board meetings.

Finally good reporting on this story. Thanks Pro Publica.

Round 2, baby!

Well, Bobby Fuckeddy is going to kill vaccines, so no more autism, no?

The thing about services for kids is that you have to give them literally everything. EPSDT requires it until the day they turn 21. Then they can get fucked like the rest of us.

A broken clock is right twice a day...

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