Wow, thank you so much for taking the time to sign this petition. We don’t know how but the signatures have started to come pouring in and it has gotten the attention of my husband’s employer who is contacting BCBS to try to remedy this situation. Depending on how that goes, I will decide if my next steps need to include contacting the state insurance board and/or a patient advocate.

I wanted to address some of the things I’ve seen in the comments. Reed does receive services from the school district. They have helped him a lot and we are incredibly thankful but also know that they are not intensive enough to give Reed everything he needs.

While my main focus is obviously Reed, this petition is about more than just Reed. BCBS is using this invisible policy to back parents into a corner and deny lots of children the services they need. They are not transparent or consistent about this supposed policy and parents are unable to make informed choices when choosing therapy providers. This petition isn’t just about money. BCBS has paid $0 of our family’s medical costs so far. I’m not asking for us to not have to pay anything ever but just that the services be counted towards our deductible so that when we do meet our deductible, we will get the coverage we are contracted to get and are paying a premium for. This is really about the insurance company’s manipulative practices designed to keep us from getting the coverage we signed on for. We appreciate all of the signatures but as with anything public, there have been those trying to tear us down with comments that we’re not sacrificing enough or that I’m not a real mom because I work. It’s easy to hide behind your computer screen and act like you know exactly what our situation is and what we should do, but until you have walked a mile in our shoes, you have no idea. There are many out there in worse situations than us but it doesn’t mean the situation we are in is not difficult. So we appreciate everyone who sees the big picture here and realizes what this petition is really about. It’s about the state of health care in our country where an insurance company can use shady manipulation tactics such as this to increase their profits. If we all remain silent, they will only continue to do this to families, which is why I decided to not just accept this denial without a fight.