I would support covering cochlear implants. Not sure about speech-language pathology though. I read the wiki and couldn't find anything worth supporting....but maybe you can change my mind. Is this working with people who stutter, have lisps and other speech disorders?
Precisely. There's no reason why we shouldn't cover SLP if we're covering mental health issues... if Atlasia's progressed to the point that we realize that mental problems aren't just a "character flaw" and deserve treatment and help, why shouldn't we do the same for people who stutter or have even more serious language impairments?
Ok, yeah that sounds like something worthwhile of funding. Though I should ask, is there evidence of these therapies working?
Also Nathan, can you further explain why you don't support cochlear implants? Just not believing in disability is hardly adequate.
It's not that I
disbelieve in disability per se, but my first instinct is to oppose this because of personal connections, through friends, to Deaf culture (as opposed to simply deaf people), so I would need to know whether or not we're funding schools for the deaf/schools for the blind/whatever and other such things before I would be able to rationally alter that instinctual position. If we might fund social programs for disabled people, to be run by and for disabled people, then I would drop my objections to funding what I personally view as a falsely 'corrective' medical attitude towards these things for those people who might want it.
