In the Beacon Broadside, Penny Wolfson talks about the challenges her family has met while raising their son with muscular dystrophy, who is now 24. Wolfson teaches creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College, and I highly recommend reading her entire essay. In brief, she says, Gov. Palin "does not represent my interests, she will, I believe make it harder and more costly than ever to care for a child with a disability." Why is that?
"In the society McCain and Palin wish to create, in which entitlement programs like Medicaid and Social Security are further whittled down, health insurance is more and more in the hands of private insurers, and deregulation continues apace, the picture for disabled children and their parents could only get worse. No matter what Palin might say about her advocacy for 'special needs' children, I have no doubt that her everyone-for-himself notions will prevail. I certainly hope Palin and her husband have plenty of time to fill out forms and make phone calls pleading Trig's cause to petty administrators; anyone with a disabled person in their family can tell you this is the substance of our daily lives.
"Private insurers want to make as much money and avoid any costs they can; they hate people like us, who have what must seem to them like an endless need for such essential items as wheelchairs, ventilator masks, home health aides, and psychological services. So they spend all their time and money fighting us, rejecting claims and having us call or email or get new verifications or asking us multiple times if we have another insurer. Every time my husband has changed jobs -- he is a physician himself -- we have had to fill out new forms, establish credentials, and deductibles, and re-explain Ansel's condition and needs -- all things that would be obviated by a national, single-payer system which Palin and McCain wholeheartedly reject."
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