For those who don’t know, my wife does read my postings every day to see what I’ve said.  While we were on our evening walk last night, we briefly discussed what I’d written yesterday and her impressions on it.  (It’s a good self-check for when I also have a different impression than she.)

And while we were discussing the matter, something very prescient was said.  She had, earlier the day, run to the bank and made a deposit of some large bills (from doing focus groups at a nearby company) and a check we’d received for our anniversary, and her thoughts on it were:

I looked at how much I deposited, and said to myself, “That’ll pay for three more weeks of his therapy.”

Now what’s wrong with that picture?

CNN Money had an interesting article about the middle class struggling and who they blame.  I’m not really going to sit down and talk about who I think is to blame for the issues facing the middle class… all I know is that we are getting smacked around something fierce for reasons that are really honestly beyond me.

But the fact is, in a lot of ways, I do feel like we’re being penalized for our success, and doubly so since we’re trying to do what’s best for the Monster and get him into a mode that he’ll be a contributing member of society when he’s of age.  We’re spending our own money to get him care that’s beyond what the school board and state are providing to him, because let’s be honest – what he’s being provided is not much beyond the bare minimum to prevent him from back-sliding.  It’s expensive… and then the tax schema is changed so that it’s more difficult for us to afford that care.

The worst is (to answer a commenter from yesterday in further detail): I’ve written to the Administration before and just plainly – the government doesn’t care.  As was pointed out to us by other friends who are watching the statistics, we’re very well off by all measures… which means that we’re also not the major group that’s being catered to in our local area.  As long as we pay our taxes, then it’s “okay” to ignore us.

The wife did point out that the therapist is already starting the process to ask Blue Cross for more OT appointments after we reach our 25-per-year limit, based on this being a developmental delay that we’re working with.  But again, the questions are a) are they going to do it and b) how much of it are we going to have to pay?  If they say no, and we decide to continue anyway, does that count against our out-of-pocket maximum or is that entirely on us?

Even if it were entirely on us, outside of the out-of-pocket maximim for my plan… we’re not going to hit the 10% floor.  If it were still the 7.5% floor, we might have come up on it in that situation… but frankly, I make too much money.

Why is the government allowed to make the decision about at what point I make enough that I don’t deserve to get a break on paying for my child’s care?

Like all parents of children with a long-term disability (and believe me… I very much cringe at referring to the Monster’s Autism as a “disability”, but if the government defines it as such…), I’m not looking for public assistance or a handout.  I’m not wanting the government to suddenly have a revelation – nice as it would be – that it’s in their best interests to make different/better decisions to help children in the Monster’s situation the aid they need and to take the responsibility from me.  I’m looking for the government, bluntly (and forgive my language) to stop making our job more difficult and expensive it is, and get the fuck out of our way.