JUNE 11, 2009 ISSUE
N.C. Children Left Speechless By Proposed Budget Cuts
In North Carolina, 25,580 children on Medicaid will have speech therapy discontinued if the proposed state budget is approved. The Health and Human Services budget claims $15.6 million would be gained by the cuts but 5,600 speech-language pathologists across the state are telling legislators that eliminating those services would result in much greater government costs.
Speech therapy is currently provided for Medicaid-enrolled children with issues such as Down Syndrome, facial abnormalities, Autism Spectrum Disorder and Apraxia, which, without early intervention, can result in a child being nonverbal. Even being able to swallow is a skill that speech pathologists must teach to some children. Speech pathologists declare speech therapy is critical because all other learning is built upon the basic competency of communicating in a way others can understand.
“If Medicaid-enrolled children and youth don’t receive this medically necessary therapy, their voices may never be heard,” said Mary Ruth Sizer, president of the North Carolina Speech, Hearing and Language Association in Raleigh. “Instead of saving funds, these cuts now could lead to a lifetime of support, with costs to the state that are catastrophic.”
She explains that children who can’t communicate effectively fall behind quickly and stay there.
“Without early intervention, they’re put on a track that often leads to a dependence on government support and failure within society,” said Sizer. “It costs more to try to educate them and they’re highly likely to become unemployed adults.”
In addition to the potential of dependence on government, the proposed elimination of services would mean 2,600 clinicians unemployed, which would lead to lost state revenue from their payroll taxes. The elimination of the services would also result in the loss of $45 million in matching federal funds.
“We recommend a balanced approach to dealing with the deficit,” said Sizer.
Sometimes speech therapy can be urgently needed to make the difference between life and death. Premature by 13 weeks, Thomas was fighting for his life in Hickory. His medical diagnosis was a “failure to thrive.” Speech-language pathologist Julie Mills worked with Thomas in the neonatal intensive care unit to wean him off the ventilator. With e-Stim, Thomas learned to swallow and eat. “Speech therapy saves lives,” said Thomas’s father, Nick. “That’s something the general public doesn’t know.” Thomas is now developing well and learning to talk.
Speech pathologists say unless speech and language services are available to help overcome physiological difficulties, many North Carolinians will be destined to a failure to thrive. They report that if the budget is approved as is, it would have a powerful, negative effect on children throughout North Carolina. Mary Ruth Sizer puts it this way: “Without basic communication skills, the promise of many thousands of our children will stay locked inside of them.
“In North Carolina, children under 21 are one-quarter of our population and all of our future. If we impoverish our children now, we’ll pay a huge price in the long-term,” said Sizer. She offered this quote from Daniel Webster as conveying the importance of providing children with speech therapy, “If all my possessions were taken from me with one exception, I would choose to keep the power of communication, for by it I would soon regain all the rest.”
For more information: www.ncshla.org.
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