Stuttering, Insurance and Marilyn Monroe

As most anyone who stutters (or has a spouse or child who stutters knows), many health insurance policies exclude therapy for stuttering. The National Stuttering association has an interesting brochure on their site which may be of use, if you find yourself trying to get your insurance company to pay for your therapy.

When I first went through the 3 weeks of therapy at the Precision Fluency Shaping Program in Norfolk, VA in 1995, I was told by my health insurance company that stuttering was not covered. However, after I attended the program, I kept submitting claim forms for the therapy. I would get a letter declining the claim, and would immediately send another out. After about 9 months of this, I went to the mail one day and found a check from my insurance provider for 80% of the therapy fee. So, I guess the lesson from that is that it is always worth a try.



On a different topic, the other night Novelchick and I were watching The Seven Year Itch on AMC. It is interesting that possibly the most beautiful woman to ever appear in a motion picture stuttered, was bipolar and spent a good part of her career with her weight around 140 pounds and wearing a size 12 dress.