We have been busy lately. Work, children, Girl Scout cookie sales, and politics have been consuming our time. Yes, politics. I've been busy mailing letters and e-mailing our legislators. Wednesday morning I got up at 4:00 am and drove the 4 hours to Pierre to testify in front of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. Then I drove the 4 hours back home. So what was worth 8 hours on the road for such a short time? Children. Particularly children with hearing loss. You see, Senate Bill 122 is an act to require insurance companies to cover audiology services, hearing equipment, and associated therapy for children with hearing loss in South Dakota. What is more worthwhile than giving children a chance to hear and speak to the best of their ability, regardless of whether or not their parents have the financial means to purchase hearing aids and speech therapy? We are fighting. And we are not finished yet. There is more work ahead. But with the support of our fellow South Dakotans we may just succeed. I am asking all South Dakota readers to please contact their legislators (click the link to find yours) and ask for a YES vote on SB122. Pass the message on to your friends. Act quickly because the bill will be heard Monday morning again. Let's give South Dakota's deaf and hard-of-hearing children the chance to speak because our children are the future voice of South Dakota.
P.S. If you listen to the audio on the website, you might just hear me testify. Just know that I was not at my best. I was trying very hard to hold back the tears, so I needed to take deep breaths, and I cut my speech short to give the many other parents behind me a chance to speak as well. We had a great turnout of supporters!
~ Carri
Hello! My name is Heidi Stevener and our son, who is 2 1/2, was diagnosed with hearing loss when he was 1 month old and got his first set of hearing aids at 2 months old! I randomly found your blog awhile back and am very interested in this particular blog post! We currently live in Texas and were blessed with being able to be at a school here in San Antonio specifically for Children with hearing loss and loaned us hearing aids for almost 2 years before finally purchasing them a couple of months ago. Like you we are inspired to help others like us by changing to law to have services covered by insurance. I was just curious where you started in the process and some things you have done to implement things in South Dakota? Thank you so much and I look forward to hearing back from you! I too have a blog, but unfortunately it is private so I would love to add you as a reader I would just need your email address?!!! Thank you again!
ReplyDeleteHeidi, I am SO sorry! I usually get e-mail notifications of comments, and I didn't receive one, so I am just now seeing this. I was not the person to start the process with SB122, which unfortunately was completely hoghoused in legislature and ended up morphing into something totally different. Don't even get me started on that! But from what I know, the mother who was originally behind the legislation started with one of her district senators. He found others to help him support and introduce the legislation. From there, other parents like us and hearing professionals got involved. We contacted our senators and representatives to make them aware of the bill and made the trip to the Capitol Building to testify. Hopefully we can return again to continue to fight for our kids! If you would like, I can put you in contact with the mom who started it all. She is part of our parent group.
ReplyDelete