Bad
contracts: A look at Obamacare
By
Jodi Hobbs
Mother
and home educator/Special Needs/Autism
The first car I purchased was a 1988 five speed
Chevette. I loved that car. I still have fond memories of driving a
manual transmission with great gas mileage. The only problem with
this description is the fact that Chevy stopped production of
Chevettes in model year 1987, according to multiple sources. And I
can assure you that I spent the first two weeks trying to get it into
fifth gear and never succeeded. Probably due to the fact that it was
only made in a four speed manual transmission or a three speed
automatic. This is the consequence of nineteen year old girls with no
automotive knowledge and too much pride attempting to negotiate a
verbal car contract with their shift supervisor, a gentleman I hope
to this day is ashamed of himself. I like to tell myself that I
learned an important lesson at an early age for the $800 I paid for
that car. Then I look back 18 months ago when I signed my very first
IEP, in essence a contract between a family and the school, detailing
the rights and accommodations of my autistic son. I sat in meeting
after meeting and naively let myself be told that I didn't need pages
of detailed, “fussy” information about each tiny accommodation
and all would be best if I allowed the school to handle the fine
print. I don't know how that same 19 year old girl ended up in that
IEP meeting. I signed off on that first contract and have spent
hundreds of hours since trying to fix the errors of my stupidity.
In October of 2013, The Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act (2010) is scheduled to go into affect – barring
a major political upset or lack of funding by Congress. Yes,
“Obamacare” as it's known by it's many critics, even successfully
navigated The U.S. Supreme Court (2012). Foreseeing the critics
looming in the shadows, if you want “expert” legal or health-care
related analysis of this new federal program, you can find it debated
on nearly any source of media daily. I am a special needs mother and
advocate, by love not necessarily by choice, and this column doesn't
claim to offer anything else. For those of you still with me, this
law simply is not ready to go into action. For an endless number of
reasons, not limited to: no one can agree how many pages of
regulations exist. Although the original bill that President Obama
signed into law is slightly over 900 pages (and full of questionable
clauses, which I address in just a moment) the White House then
issued further details and endless pages of terms and conditions.
Politicians have gone to social media sending out photos and quips
about how many thousands of pages still yet had to print. Reputable
media sources quoted page counts from 15,000 to 33,000. No one has
had time to read this law or process how it's going to be enacted.
New committees and agencies were created. Call me a cynic, but none
of those actions are historically successful for the U.S. Government
when new law is concerned.
Very well, but does any of this involve special needs or
autism families? It has to by definition. We are speaking about the
largest legal and structural overhaul of the American health system
in the last century. And therein lies the problem. No one has had
time to agree on the original 900 pages of the bill. Thirteen State
Attorney Generals tried to sue the Federal Government to stop this
from becoming law. Lawmakers in South Carolina have tried
unsuccessfully to make implementing Obamacare illegal in the state.
Adding countless thousands of pages in addition is simply madness.
There are bound to be policies that contradict or impose unreasonable
penalties on seeking reasonable medical care.
For example, look at one clause in the original bill
signed by President Obama that concerns me:
SEC. 3502. ESTABLISHING COMMUNITY HEALTH TEAMS TO SUPPORT
THE PATIENT-CENTERED MEDICAL HOME:
|
(J) establish a coordinated system of early identification
and referral for children at risk for developmental or
behavioral problems such as through the use of infolines,
health information technology, or other means as determined
by the Secretary;
|
Is it just me or does anyone else notice the B-R-O-A-D
vagueness and general lack of detail about how “Community Support
Teams” (i.e. Federal agents) will be identifying “at risk”
children? Or what will be done with the information? Does this mean
if I have a preemie that my baby will go on a registry with the
federal government to be 'watched'? Or if my child has low Apgar
scores that a federally-funded nurse will show up at my door to
inspect my child? Where will this data be kept? For how long? Who
will have access to it and for what reasons? The questions are
endless.
Now, is there truly likely to be an iron nurse at my
front door to inspect my two special needs children flanked by
federal troops bearing arms? Doubtful, at best. But those in the
media, health-care, legal and special needs/autism communities who
have watched this disaster unfold have some well-founded fears and
concerns. This is America, after all. We like our Bill of Rights,
our Right to Bear Arms and any other piece of the constitution we can
work in the conversation. We also have the right to have clear,
understandable laws that spell out the relationship between the
citizen and our “voluntary” government services.
Jodi Hobbs is a soon to be single mother and home educator to two special needs/autistic children who teach her everyday that the legendary box never even existed, but the possibilities within the minds of our children can transform the world. She is a fierce believer in mental health access and treatment being basic human rights. She blogs at www.throughthehardtimesandthegood.blogspot.com and is a regular contributor to www.Dandelionmoms.com. Her Facebook page can be found at I did NOT sign up for this Special Needs Parenting and you may follow her on Twitter @JHobbsSaunders. Jodi welcomes reader opinions and comments at snp.ididnotsignupforthis@gmail.com
