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Comment by faeriechangling | Hacker News Reader

No, the problem was that psychiatrists could bill insurers more to treat autism than they could Asperger's. You aren't cynical enough.

If it wasn't a scientific distinction, why are we still identifying autism subtypes?

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I think this is precisely why for-profit healthcare is wild. If it weren’t for ideology we could get behind socialised care and cut out all of the nonsense.

Do you have any information on patients could be billed more for an autism diagnosis? I've never heard this claim before.

Mostly anecdotal, my school psychologist back in the day sure believed it, and this would vary from place to place. She was a champion of "You give children the diagnosis that gives them the services they need". Autism being the one which gave children the services they needed, and she often expressed frustration at not being able to get such a diagnosis.

In general Aspergers basically meant no verbal delays, where Autism meant verbal delay. Autism was also around longer as a diagnosis. In general, I think theres a reason they changed the name of Aspergers to Autism and not the other way around.

I thought they changed the name in part because Hans Asperger was a Nazi collaborator.

Interesting that the diagnosis of autism apparently wasn't available to her. Do you know what she would have been referring to by the autism diagnosis being able to get children the services they needed, that the "asperger's" diagnosis would not?

It can be helpful to get a diagnosis of autism for kids in public school. Kids end up needing additional one on one time and resources are limited. Those with the biggest problems are the first to be approved for these resources, and a formal diagnosis makes it easier to get that approval.

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