Comparing the Economic and Social Prevalence Among Special Needs Children who received health insurance through Medicaid/CHIP

The Kaiser Family Foundation has released an issue brief (below) with an in-depth analysis comparing the economic and social prevalence among special needs children who received health insurance through Medicaid/CHIP, private insurance, a combination of Medicaid/CHIP and private insurance, or who are uninsured. The analysis from Kaiser shows that children with special needs who benefit from Medicaid/CHIP have increased health access and their families experience lower financial burden in comparison to their counterparts. In addition, financial […]

Many Are Replacing Disability Checks With Paychecks

Heard on All Things Considered Scott Horsley Main Photo: Dani Izzie at her home in rural Virginia. More than a decade ago, she slipped in the bathroom and suffered a spinal cord injury that has left her unable to walk. She works as a social media manager for Spinergy, a company that makes high-performance wheels for wheelchairs. Greg Kahn for NPR During and after the Great Recession, people turned to disability rolls in large numbers […]

How ABLE Accounts Support Special-Needs Children and Their Families

BY Dawn Doebler, MBA, CPA, CFP®, CDFA®, Senior Wealth Advisor ABLE accounts are an important planning tool alongside more-traditional techniques such as special-needs trusts. One financial challenge that many families with special-needs children confront is funding the ever-growing expenses that their child may need over their lifetime. With additional costs of important medical and support care often reaching over $100,000 per year for a special-needs child, many families look to special government programs to fill […]

Disability Etiquette

Introduction The United States Census Bureau reports that approximately 56.7 million Americans have a disability. This report is for anyone—with or without a disability—who wants to interact more effectively with people with disabilities. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was conceived with the goal of integrating people with disabilities into all aspects of life, particularly the workplace and the marketplace. Sensitivity toward people with disabilities is not only in the spirit of the ADA, […]

Small molecule targets cause of adult onset muscular dystrophy

—by Tianna Hicklin, Ph.D. At a Glance Researchers developed a small molecule that, in mice, blocks the mutated RNA responsible for adult onset muscular dystrophy. The findings suggest a new avenue to develop therapeutics for this condition. Muscular dystrophy includes over 30 inheritable diseases. These are characterized by progressive weakness and degeneration of the muscles. Some types of muscular dystrophy appear in childhood, while others may not appear until adulthood. Myotonic dystrophy is the most […]