As a Matter of Fact, It’s a Matter of Money

If I have to be honest about one thing today, it has to be about money. I just paid the rent for our apartment unit today. It is relatively expensive in this city because it is accessible to almost everything, including St. Paul School of Ormoc where Gabby is attending his accelerated Grade 1 classes and sped classes and the Able Buddies OT clinic where he goes for his weekly group occupational therapy sessions.

We chose to relocate here because we needed to put him on accessible intervention programs two years ago. However, my husband had to pay a high price for it. And this is not a euphemism. Lots of money is involved here. Our decision to prioritize the progress of Gabby involved a trade-off. We had to give up our ‘financially better’ but ‘generally difficult’ life in my hometown so we can have a ‘financially difficult’ but ‘generally better’ life here. Am I making sense here? Here’s the sad truth. Special teachers, behaviorists, occupational therapists, speech therapists are all extremely expensive but they help Gabby and us, his family, live a better life.

Indeed, today’s economy is rough on families around the country, but there are some who are impacted more than others. Include our family in that list. Having a child with autism is an emotional, physical, and fiscal feat. As parents of Gabby, my husband and I have additional expenditures that have turned our middle-income family into a low-income family in a matter of months.

Let me enumerate the financial challenges that we have been living with our daily lives.

1. We are a single income family. Children with autism require around-the-clock care and stimulation. Though this can be done by a caregiver, I chose to quit my job and stay home to care for Gabby right after he was diagnosed. In a two-parent family such as ours, that means my husband who is an OFW-seaman must shoulder the burden of earning enough money to support our family and the extensive cost of care.
2. We have to spend for Gabby’s special school, therapy sessions, and regular school that are relatively expensive. That is a fact. Every month, sending Gabby to these intervention programs require us to shell roughly more than P10,000. His three times a week of sped classes cost P5,500. His weekly group occupational therapy sessions cost P2,000. His grade 1 tuition costs P2,000. His yaya, who we hired when I gave birth to my second baby, is also paid P2,500 per month. Other incidental costs include transportation and food (baon) expenses.
3. We need to spend for spend for Gabby’s special activities too.  These activities include special camps, swimming lessons, and social events such as Easter trick or treat parties and Halloween costume parties. However, these activities can be expensive. As I said before, gradual but constant exposure to these activities can enable Gabby to adapt to different social situations. We think they are imperative for the social development of our child.
4. We also pay for Gabby’s special materials. When Gabby started occupational and speech therapy sessions, we also bought materials more or less the same materials that he used during sessions so that we can do follow-though at home. We have a stability ball, a trampoline, board games, puzzles and other toys that functioned as therapy materials. These can be pricey especially if we don’t buy them wholesale or from a direct seller.
5. We lack health coverage for all the costs mentioned above.  Health insurance has not caught up with the need of the times. Unfortunately, in the Philippines, all health insurance plans exclude treatment for autism or outright refuse to cover behavioral-related therapy because it is considered “educational” rather than medical. By denying coverage, we are left to pay these treatment costs out-of-pocket.

Raising a child is already financially hard. Nevertheless, raising a child with special needs is much more financially difficult. I am not complaining though. Despite these challenges with money, I can say raising Gabby has been challenging but rewarding. We believe that God provides. He helped us master the art of getting by autism. After all, he does not give us what we cannot handle.

* This was our family portrait in July 2013.