From The New York Times Motherlode blog, a post by Marie Myung-Ok Lee, a novelist and teaches creative writing at Brown University.
Katie Beckett died last month at age 34. Most Americans don’t know
who she is. But as a parent of a child with disabilities, her name is as
familiar as my own child’s. Because of the legislation that bears her
name, hundreds of thousands of children, including my own, are able to be at home with their families instead of being institutionalized.
At
5 months of age, encephalitis left Katie Beckett spending most of her
early years in the hospital. When she was 3, doctors cleared her to go
home with proper supports — she still needed to be on a respirator 12
hours a day. Her insurance had been exhausted, and Medicaid refused to
pay for her care unless it was done in the hospital -- even though
treatment could be administered at home at one-sixth the cost.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Because of Katie, Children with Severe Disabilities Are Living at Home
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