Greg_Groogan's Blog

Greg: We thank you for wanting to tell our story, one similar to every special needs family. We didn't think ours was necessarily more compelling; I know others whose situations are much worse. I can only hope this story will be part of a catalyst for change that will help their lives, too.

It's true: We are paying for all sorts of consequences from life choices in our health insurance premiums. Autism is not a life choice. It's the only medical disease that has consequences in many bodily systems and is not covered by insurance. Taxpayers can choose an estimated 0.5% increase now or face billions of dollars when these kids turn into nontaxpaying adults, a burden like we've never seen before on a social system that is crumbling before us now.

School districts HAVE to invest in their children instead of their lawyers. Many kids who were in the autism unit in CISD have regressed as badly as Patrick. His story here is not unique.

We do have one shred of hope before this session ends. I found out late last night Senate Bill 419 comes up for a vote on Monday (it's on the "B" schedule) in the house. Everyone who is reading this, please pick up your phone and call your state house representative and Gov Perry (because the insurance lobby is hard at work pressuring him to veto the bill if it is passed) and tell them they need to make sure this gets to the floor and they support it.

Thank you again for showing yet another side of what all our families face. Peace & blessings to all.

Greg,

See my blog entry, "$300 Billion & Fox26 News."

What bothers me is that millions of dollars are sent to third world countries all over the world for the people there to make their lives better. How is this right when we have our special needs children surviving in educational third world conditions with teachers that are overwhelmed due to lack of training, paras that also have second class training and our children are abused by the "professionals" we entrust them to. Parents of "regular children" see our kids as a drain on the budget of our schools and make few attempts to see the potential in our children that could be realized if the millions sent overseas were invested in our children. How can our government justify allowing insurance companies not to "cover" this problem when as already stated people that participate in self injurious activities have full coverage to help them get better or be more comfortable and sometimes at NO COST to them when families around the country are bankrupting themselves to take care of the children that did not ask to be autistic.

Again, thanks to Channel 26 and Greg Groogan for continuing their efforts to expose the efforts of the school districts to sabatoge parents as they work toward their children's best interest.