Tim Blair opinion: Autism is real, but so are the exploiters costing us a bomb
Kids with mild developmental conditions are herded into a care structure established for the profoundly disabled. It doesn’t work for the children, but it sure does for $40k per person therapists, writes Tim Blair.
Autism is real, at least so far as non-medical expert me is aware.
But autism is also really difficult to diagnose. There is no objective medical test for autism. It can’t be detected by analysis of blood, genetic material or any other physical means.
Instead, autism can only be determined subjectively, by autism specialists. It can also only be treated by autism specialists. All of whom work in the autism industry.
Which means that the field of autism therapy is perfect for scammers, who if challenged can always hide behind a “caring for the children” barrier. Of course, not all of them are doing the wrong thing, but for the shifty, subjectivity plus overt compassion equals not only dollars but community acclaim.
Again, autism is real – just like an inclination to alcoholism, for which there is also no physical test. Subjective doesn’t always mean fake.
It sure can be bent that way, though. Especially if tons of taxpayer cash is involved. Let’s just say that autism is genuine but much of the industry around it is a load of lucrative lies.
How lucrative? Check the numbers from last week’s News Corp investigation, which found that taxpayer spending on autism reached a record high of $9.2bn throughout the past financial year – up from $4.2bn in 2020-21.
The National Disability Insurance Scheme now has more than 300,000 Australians on its books who are receiving autism funding – or who, more precisely, are conduits for funding the autism industry.
Autism is now the single most expensive disability in the entire $50bn per year NDIS. And autism diagnoses and funding will no doubt keep growing as the NDIS itself keeps growing, at a staggering 10 per cent every economy-draining year.
Even the Albanese government knows that a scam is afoot. It’s just that it is too timid to declare outright that bogus autism therapists are hauling money out of the NDIS like illegal Chinese fishing fleets strip-mining oceans.
Disability and NDIS Minister Mark Butler wants to set up a separate autism treatment scheme, indicating only that current NDIS spending on autism is poorly targeted.
“Tens and tens of thousands of young children with mild to moderate developmental delay or autism are on a scheme set up for permanent disability,” Butler said last week. “But it’s all parents currently have available. It’s not the parents’ fault.”
Very true. And it’s definitely not the kids’ fault. You don’t get free NDIS bucks if you’re autistic. You do, however, get access to NDIS bucks that enrich local autism carers.
My old NSW Central Coast local council area has 5902 NDIS-registered autism folk. To deal with this, the government has committed a total of $234,638,333 – or nearly 40 grand per individual. The small country town where I now live has 228 NDIS autism participants and nearly $8m in committed funds – or just about 35 grand each.
Why so expensive – and, for autism care providers, so abundantly profitable? It’s as Butler
says: kids with mild developmental conditions are herded into a care structure established for the profoundly disabled.
It doesn’t work for the children. Or for taxpayers. But it sure works for all those $40,000 per patient per year autism therapists.
Australia’s autism overspending has parallels elsewhere. Back in 2009, a New York Times headline referred to an odd development in Minnesota’s capital: “Autism Rates Are Higher for US-Born Somali Children in Minneapolis.”
In 2011: “Autism in Somali Children Will Be Investigated.” And in 2013: Study Links Autism and Somalis in Minneapolis.”
But it was all a scam. Following excellent investigative work from a number of smaller outlets, the New York Times last month ran this headline: “How Fraud Swamped Minnesota’s Social Services System.”
One of those outlets, Country Highway, laid it out: “Statewide, Somali children are seven times likelier than their non-Somali counterparts to receive autism treatment, suggesting that Somalis either have far better access to a specialised medical service than the average Minnesotan, or that Somali operators are illegally billing a large volume of phantom services.”
Those scammers exploited a moral child-welfare shield. As well, they hid behind race. And for years it worked.
But now 59 people, mostly of Somali background, have been convicted of autism and welfare fraud worth something like $2bn – which, alarmingly, is far short of our own autism program spending.
“The programs are set up to improve people’s lives,” Minnesota governor and would-be US vice president Tim Walz said of the fraud saga. “In many cases, the criminals find the loopholes.”
Took him long enough to work it out. To be fair, though, it’s taken all of us long enough.
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