we have to plan for their financial future the best we can

Even though autism is more in the news now it is still well behind other medical issues. The politicians are not going to do anything about it until they are forced to and for that to happen the general public must get involved.

Most people have no idea how much more it costs to raise an autistic child and even when they hear about it they assume the state helps pay. Then most people have the if it does not affect me then I don't care attitude.

"The team found that the comprehensive costs of ASD will range from $162 to $367 billion for 2015 (with the researchers' best estimate of $268 billion) and from $276 to $1 trillion (with the researchers' best estimate of $461 billion) for 2025. The 2015 figures are on a par with recent cost estimates for diabetes and exceed the combined costs of stroke and hypertension. If the prevalence of ASD continues to grow as it has in recent years, the costs likely will far exceed those of diabetes by 2025.

To reduce these multi-billion dollar totals, Leigh and Du recommend a research investment in ASD equal to that for diabetes, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health at more than five times the level of research on ASD."

Most people don't have to deal with autism directly so they don't see it as their problem. The first large cohort of kids that started showing signs of autism in the 1990s are just beginning to age out of schools and most programs so they aren't visible yet. Most people with autism will end up living at home so they'll remain a private issue for families.

People can develop diabetes earlier or later in life and it can kill you so people pay attention to the disease. Autism doesn't happen later in life and it doesn't kill so the public will hit the snooze button again. NIH funding on autism research remains a joke and it's not in the top 100 research areas. Compared to another medical condition that was previously unknown- AIDS, autism is nowhere to close to the funding or political organization.

It's an oversized house of cards. One puff and.......................................:(((

I'm with you! I managed to secure funding from our local Regional Center for a few things and housing if need be. Still, it costs big bucks to care for our kids and adult children. No way I'd depend on the government.