Many of us look to supposedly independent online sources to challenge the REALLY BIG LIE ABOUT AUTISM and the rest of the cover-up surrounding the declining health of children in the 21^st century, but sadly I’m seeing that they too are buying into the same propaganda as the establishment news.

On January 2^nd there was a story in the Minnesota Reformer that should be of concern to parents of autistic children everywhere.

The title was, Minnesota-based UnitedHealth is strategically limiting access to critical autism treatment by Annie Waldman. This story was first published by the investigative nonprofit, ProPublica.

Both the Minnesota Reformer andProPublica declare themselves to be independent news sources.

The Minnesota Reformer is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to keeping Minnesotans informed and unearthing stories other outlets can’t or won’t tell. We’re in the halls of government tracking what elected officials are up to — and monitoring the powerful forces trying to influence them. But we’re also on the streets, at the bars and parks, on farms and in warehouses, telling you stories of the people being affected by the actions of government and big business. And we’re free. No ads. No paywall.

ProPublica’s mission statement reads like this: To expose abuses of power and betrayals of the public trust by government, business, and other institutions, using the moral force of investigative journalism to spur reform through the sustained spotlighting of wrongdoing.

In the face of these noble sounding promises, I can only express disappointment over what we were told in Waldman’s piece published by both of these sites.

The lengthy article described the struggles of Sharelle Menard, a mother in Louisiana with a 10 year old son, Benji, with severe autism. The insurance provider United Healthcare is cutting back on vital hours of ABA therapy each week.

The insurer that has been paying for her son’s therapy, UnitedHealthcare, has begun — to the befuddlement of his clinical team — denying him the hours they say he requires to maintain his progress. Inside the insurance conglomerate, the nation’s largest and most profitable, the slashing of care to children like Benji does have a reason, though it has little to do with their needs. It is part of a secret internal cost-cutting campaign that targets a growing financial burden for the company: the treatment of thousands of children with autism across the country. . . .

United administers Medicaid plans or benefits in about two dozen states and for more than 6 million people, including nearly 10,000 children with autism spectrum disorder. Optum [the division that manages mental health benefits for United] expects to spend about $290 million for ABA therapy within its Medicaid plans this year, and it anticipates the need increasing, documents show. The number of its Medicaid patients accessing the specialized therapy has increased by about 20% over the past year, with expenses rising about $75 million year-on-year.

So Optum — whose parent company, UnitedHealth Group, earned $22 billion in net profits last year — is “heavily investing” in its plan to save millions by limiting access to such care.

In addition to culling providers from its network, the company is scrutinizing the medical necessity of the therapy for individual patients with “rigorous” clinical reviews, which can lead to denials of covered treatment. Optum has developed an “approach to authorizing less units than requested,” the records state. . . .

Benji, who is now 10, requires 33 hours of weekly therapy to be able to progress, his therapists have concluded. They have documented the consequences of having even a few hours less: toppled furniture, scratched-up classroom aides, a kid in unremitting tears, unable to learn. But in a letter to Menard, Optum said it was refusing to pay for the full hours, stating that her son had been in therapy for too long and was not showing enough progress to ultimately graduate from it.

What Waldman focused on in the story was the insurance industry’s callous attitude toward severely disabled children. We get a close-up look at the struggles faced by this particular child, which no doubt is happening to many thousands of other children in the same situation.

What stood out to me first and foremost was the REALLY BIG LIE ABOUT AUTISM,the totally unsubstantiated, but universally accepted claim that autism is nothing new.

Waldman wrote:

But the company’s costs have climbed as the number of children diagnosed with autism has ballooned; experts say greater awareness and improved screening have contributed to a fourfold increase in the past two decades — from 1 in 150 to 1 in 36. . . .

What “experts”?

In truth, Waldman is just as ready to promote the cover-up of the autism epidemic as anyone at the New York Times or CNN.

STOP RIGHT HERE

We all just need to STOP PRETENDING THIS IS NORMAL.

Waldman is totally unconcerned about ALWAYS MORE CHILDREN WITH AUTISM.

This has long been the message of the corporate controlled mainstream media and here we see the same thing from two supposedly independent and honest news sources.

While sounding concerned about services for autistic children, they ignore totally where all these children are coming from in the first place.

Here’s what’s been happening to autism over the last 20 years, and remember, nothing here represents a real increase in autism, according to “experts” at the CDC.

(FYI, Asperger Syndrome, or mild autism, was added in 1994, so “widening the definition” hardly applies.)

Asperger Syndrome or mild autism was added in 1994, 30 years ago, and it was removed in 2013 It is now considered part of the broader Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis.

In 2002 the rate was one in every 250 children.

In 2004 it was one in 166 children, one in 102 boys.

In 2007 it was one in 150 children, one in 92 boys.

In 2009 it was one in 110 children, one in 68 boys.

In 2012 it was one in 88 children, one in 54 boys.

In 2014 it was one in 68 children, one in 42 boys.

In 2018 it was one in 59 children, one in 36 boys.

In 2020 it was one in 54 children, one in 33 boys.

In 2021 it was one in 44 children, one in 27 boys.

In 2023 it is one in 36 children, one in 22 boys.

NO ONE IN THE MEDIA EVER QUESTIONS THESE INCREASES.

Waldman and the rest of the press merely repeat the claims of the CDC in their biennial update in the autism numbers while ignoring the most heated controversy in medicine: THE CLAIM THAT VACCINES CAUSE AUTISM.

While this story wasn’t about the controversial link between vaccines and autism, it is what’s really behind the claim of no real increase.

The CDC has everything at stake in fostering the REALLY BIG LIE since they run the vaccine program.

IF reporters like Annie Waldman really were out to “hold the powerful accountable,” they’d do more than just faithfully repeat the ridiculous claim that we’ve always had all this autism.

We’ve had IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) for 50 years. Why are schools still failing these children, as Waldman described in her piece?

One telling bit of information Waldman wrote deserves more attention.

Researchers have found that about a quarter of kids diagnosed with autism are severely affected; these children are often minimally or non-speaking or require extensive assistance for basic daily needs.

Actually NIH reports that 25 to 35 percent of autistic children are in this category. 

Large numbers of nonverbal children in the past would have been hard to ignore, even if we didn’t call their disability autism, yet, as Waldman points out, there are waiting lists to get the necessary therapy.

It should also be noted that a third of autistic children experienced regression where they started out normally developing, lost learned skills and ended up on the autism spectrum, as reported by NIH. 

Our health officials have steadfastly refused to look into what could be behind this regression happening in so many children, and members of the press never mention it.

Additionally, I’d like to ask Annie Waldman and everyone else in the media what it will take for them to honestly look into what autism is doing to us as a country.

Show us the same rate of autism in adults.

IF there’s never been a true increase in autism, there should be this vast population of 40, 60 and 80 year olds with the same signs of autism we see in eight year olds. No one has ever been able to show us the comparable rate that we’re told is out there among adults.

The Future

I fully expect the CDC to once again update the autism rate sometime this year, and of course, the numbers will be higher. I can say this knowing that currently, the rate in California is one in every 22 children, one in 14 boys.

Other countries also are seeing more autism. The rate in Australia is one in 25 children. In Scotland, it’s one in 23. Ireland has a rate of one in 21, and in Northern Ireland, it’s one in 20.

Will Annie Waldman and everyone reporting on this continue to tell us that this still doesn’t mean more children have autism?

Finally, is there some future rate that will finally get reporters to question the REALLY BIG LIE ABOUT AUTISM? How bad will the numbers have to get?

YOUR THOUGHT?