ADHD, Bipolar Children At Risk For Losing Benefits (LISTEN)

After Hulston Poe started taking the appropriate ADHD medication, his mother said she was able to "see a light" in her son's eyes again. But, now that she's at risk for losing the funding that pays for the 4-year-old's pills, that light may get dimmed again, NPR reports.

The Supplemental Security Income program--which helps low-income families pay for medical care for children with severe disabilities--has grown 40 percent in the last decade. It serves more than 1 million kids, like Hulston, who suffer from conditions ranging from autism to Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder.

Despite the growing need, the government has already taken steps to limit the program. The House budget resolution, for example, proposed reducing SSI program incentives to potentially save $1.4 billion, in the next 10 years, according to NPR.

Supporters of the SSI program--which includes 16 major advocacy groups nationwide--have already set up a coalition to preserve the program and lobby Congress.

"I think a lot of the skepticism about the children's SSI program really is just thinly veiled skepticism about the legitimacy of mental health disorders," Rebecca Vallas, a lawyer at Community Legal Services in Philadelphia, told the news outlet.

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Comments

[gravescanada]

08:35 AM on 08/24/2011

In the mid to late 80's, in my late teens, I knew there was something wrong but no doctor ever picked it up. In my mid twenty's they put me on Prozac and I went to college. I was a high school drop out whos grades never went higher than 70%. On Prozac I found all this energy and focus, I graduated college on the deans list and honor roll. I was amazing! I went on to have a fantastic carreer in management and then Crashed and burned. I was lost, did not know what was wrong. Some days I was superman, others I could barely make it into the office. The doctors thought ADHD. Wow wrong meds for sure. I ended up with a diagnosis of Bipolar disorder a couple of years later. I went through many meds and several suicide attempts. I even had Electro Convulsive Therapy. I can only wonder how diffent my life could have been had I been diagnosed in my teens and gotten the proper meds then. ADHD does seem to be a knee jerk diagnosis, quick and easy. But the reality is its hard to make a diagnosis. Cutting spending in this area is just wrong. We need to start spending real money on finding a cure. I hate my life on meds. I would love to be med free. But without them, I am a mess. I just want to be normal as do the kids that are hurting in our schools.

[ellwood145]

10:47 PM on 08/23/2011

Up 40% percent in 10 yrs. Pill pusher Dr's in the pharmas corner.

[Shanna McNeil]

02:49 PM on 08/23/2011

My private insurance has stopped covering doctors visits for my child with adhd. It's very frustrating. ADHD is a medical condition, not poor parenting. Cutting off funding for this will cause countless future problems for these kids, not to mention the public cost: incarceration, drug abuse etc.. My son has benefitted immensely from his treatment, not just with meds, but therapy and special education in school. He is now a normal functioning child with great grades, few behavior problems and is a joy to be around. I'm lucky enough to be able to afford to pay cash for his visits, but the kids and parents on SSI don't have that option. Our governments priorities are so screwed up.

[Mountain Momma]

12:37 AM on 08/24/2011

My insurance company stopped covering behavioral therapy visits, but they would cover medication check visits. Thank God we had chosen to use a psychologist who also happened to be a nurse practitioner, so she could write prescriptions while also doing behavioral therapy. She just writes up every visit as a medication check. It's ridiculous when current research has shown the best approach is a combination of medication and therapy, not medication only.

[El Chingaso]

06:43 AM on 08/24/2011

No, the priorities aren't screwed up. You're a parent...so pay out of pocket for your child's medications. The well is dry, and taxpayers are exhausted at having to pay for benefits that parents are responsible for (disconnect the cable TV and cell phone plans).

[Bigrcube]

10:50 AM on 08/23/2011

$1.4 billion in cuts over next 10 years, but the GOP Congress keeps giving the OIL companies $4 billion plus every year in subsidies to PAD their bottom lines for shareholders. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, eh?!

[Bigrcube]

10:48 AM on 08/23/2011

The GOP has no more money for this program because they want MORE tax cuts to the richest people who have more money than they can burn in a lifetime.

[Lauren Lamourine]

12:52 AM on 08/23/2011

Neurological conditions always seem to be the first things cut, probably because most are not directly fatal and there is no actual cure for most. It is almost as if the insurance groups feel spending money on them is a waste.
At least that's the impression I felt when fighting to stay on the insurance when I was diagnosed with epilepsy back in '04. Then the neurologist was covered, but a hospital visit if I had a tonic-clonic seizure was not. It was like the company was saying "Well, you'll have seizures regardless, and you'll probably break something during the next one too. Sorry."

To these families, it sounds like SSI is saying the same thing. "Eh, why bother? Your kid will be screwed up anyway."

[jneuman771]

12:35 AM on 08/23/2011

How do we as a society conscience this and think that all the other tax breaks are okay? The measure of our "civilized" society is how we prioritize the needs vs. wants. Yes, the oil companies want a tax deal, corporate american wants their corporate welfare and look how many
children now are at risk or considered impoverished by our legislation or lack of.
Our problem in this country is we have no moral outrage.

[HawaiiSteve]

01:57 PM on 08/23/2011

F/F! You'd have to have a collective sense of morality first, something sadly missing in these days of the "I got mine, scr$w you" mentality that is the Tea Party. Case in point: their rabid opposition to Universal Health. There is nothing as immoral as allowing corporation to earn 30% of every dollar spent on health care, especially when they don't actually provide the care. They have simply inserted themselves into the middle of every doctor/patient relationship in order to get their cut. Treatment is not based upon need, but on the ability to pay. THAT'S IMMORAL!

[Richie MuadDib]

11:47 PM on 08/22/2011

This is just another Obama/dem failure. We should have a single payer system right now, if these "leaders" had any intestinal fortitude...
Instead, they drop the ball on healthcare, then drop the ball on the budget, then drop the ball on the debt ceiling and agree to put "everything on the table" for cuts rather than eliminating tax cuts for the rich.
I'm sure there are people getting over on SSI, and I'm sure there are kids being diagnosed for ADHD that otherwise shouldn't be, but let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater here, this is ridiculous.
I sincerely hope rational minds prevail and we simply bring the troops home, thereby saving MORE than enough to fund our less fortunate children.

[Rationality4all]

09:18 PM on 08/22/2011

I would feel bad, except ADD and ADHD aren't real diseases...

[Susie Ries Barnes]

11:55 PM on 08/22/2011

My kid was diagnosed after 4hrs worth of testing by a neuropsychologist. Does that qualify as a real diagnosis?

[PirateJohn]

01:14 AM on 08/23/2011

What, you mean to insinuate that four hours of testing by a neuropsychologist is somehow better than a couple of Newsweek articles?

[HawaiiSteve]

12:18 AM on 08/23/2011

And you went to Med School where?

[hempster]

04:50 PM on 08/22/2011

Personal experience and what - nots. I think ADHD might be a little over diagnosed. Maybe that's where we should start.

Any kid, or adult for that matter, suffering from any disease ought to get proper treatment under SSI or whatever. But it's the nagging sense I have, that sometimes or perhaps most of the time it's a "cop out" by parents and teachers for not being able to handle childhood behaviors.

The money being talked about and the time frame is "peanuts" when you look at the whole scheme of where tax monies are spent. That's not an issue for me. It's the kids not allowed to be kids because of some inconvenience in their socialization.

Sure treat ADHD but first lets be really sure it's that we are treating. Thanks. It's a gripping issue for some i know. But-------.They're kids.

[paganmist]

02:35 PM on 08/22/2011

How ethical is it to cut $1.4 billion in mental health services to children, while simultaneously refusing to cut over $30 billion in subsidies to companies that 1) don't need them, and 2) are exploiting loopholes in order to qualify for them?

[HawaiiSteve]

06:58 PM on 08/22/2011

Children with mental disorders don't spend a lot on "K" Street.

[PirateJohn]

01:51 PM on 08/22/2011

Great idea, let's take all those bipolar kids off their meds. Then we can rant and rave on FOX NEWS about how evil they were when they snap in the middle of school and end up in prison for life.

[NoStylePoints]

08:51 PM on 08/24/2011

Yup. That's it exactly. Society WILL pay for my youngest (seriously mentally ill) child (and we're paying right through the nose now, but there will come a time when there's nothing left), and the choice is, should we pay for services now, or prison later? People misunderstand and think the choice is pay or don't pay. There's no such thing. My son is here, and he is ill, and that's not going to change.

[Kyle Noe]

10:54 AM on 08/22/2011

It's depressing that we're willing to cut back on such important programs to save a measly $1.4 billion over 10 years. Newsflash: that's one ten-thousandth of the deficit. Harming the country's children is the last thing we want to do, especially when it's only a tiny amount saved. If we really want to cut down on the deficit, let's close the corporate tax loopholes and end oil subsidies.

Ending programs like this, while supporting the continuation of the loopholes and subsidies, is basically saying "We care more about big corporations and big oil than children with medical problems."

[SoCalifTeacher]

08:10 AM on 08/22/2011

Someone should do a study to see how many ADD/ADHD/bipolor children are being raised by single moms.

[Susie Ries Barnes]

10:07 AM on 08/22/2011

I'm a mom of an ADHD kid. My husband (his father) and I fortunately can afford his medication. If he hadn't been able to take meds for this he wouldn't be an honor student, cum laude grad from high school, have won several regional music awards and want to be a band teacher so he can share his love of music. In other words, BE A PRODUCTIVE MEMBER OF SOCIETY, PAY TAXES AND NOT NEED GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE! Why do people not understand that a little help can make the difference between a lifetime of failure vs. success?

And in case you didn't get it, single parenthood has nothing to do with ADHD!

[menopatza1]

10:33 AM on 08/22/2011

Thank you, Susie! How monstrous this is! My life would have been very short and painful if not for Bipolar medication and proper diagnosis.

[menopatza1]

10:36 AM on 08/22/2011

Someone else should do a study about why single moms are blamed for every damned thing in society. You should be ashamed of yourself.

[Stephen Stafford]

10:46 AM on 08/22/2011

Option One: You posted a snark that did not work. Yea, 'cause this is a good one to experience an epic fail on.

Option Two: Your status as a reprobate was insecure and you wanted to convince all of your full committment to loutishness.

Option Three: You are on the way to the emergency facilities as someone just beat you rather severely with an ignorant stick.

[DAE]

05:01 PM on 08/22/2011

Sorry. Just trying to remind people not to go back from whence we came.

[HawaiiSteve]

01:15 PM on 08/22/2011

Please tel me that you are kidding and this is a bad attempt at sarcasm? Otherwise, I'd have to nominate you for Neanderthal of the Year!

[DAE]

04:59 PM on 08/22/2011

My bad. I was just thinking of how it used to be and wanted to remind people that we don't want to go back there.