Limit Pushers

The bill to mandate insurance coverage for people with autism in Michigan did not make it.

After a long tireless fight, it did not pass the Senate last night, or this morning.

I'm disappointed and feel like we just took two steps back AGAIN but I am also I'm grateful.

I spent last evening, along with most of the autism parents in Michigan, checking face.book, twitt.er, the Michigan government sites and text messages waiting for news from the parents who have given up days and months and years of their time to get this bill passed.  I have to say I have been humble by their efforts.  The amount of time they have spent on this cause not just for their children but because they saw the bigger picture and knew this was needed for the many children of Michigan.

I'm not sure why it has taken me this long to fully grasp this but over the last year or so I have finally understood just how much work has been done by other parents of special needs kids before me to make my life easier.

There is no doubt in my mind that the fact that Ashlyn has the opportunities she does is because of outspoken parents who pushed the limits of the past and the reason my preemies benefitted from so many advances in neonatal care is because of the many preemie parents before us.

Many years of limit-pushing ago

I made my phone calls and sent my emails for this insurance bill but I did not make a trip to Lansing or spend my days with lobbyists and without the many parents who did, this bill would never have seen the light of day.

In general, this is a crappy day for parents of children with autism in our state.  Autism is not the easiest diagnosis in the world to swallow and then to find out that your state is not willing to give you a helping hand?  Well that is a little bit of a slap in the face.

The one thing that we can take comfort in is the fact that if they won't help, there is always another parent out there who will.

So if you are trying to keep up the strength to advocate for your child in any area, whether it be to get them included in general education, for a medical test your gut is telling you is needed or just to get that grade changed on the history test you know they should have passed don't give up.

You are not alone and there might just be a parent or two waiting to walk on that road you are paving.