Is autism therapy becoming free childcare? Follow the money.
Medicaid paid $1.9 billion for autism therapy in 2021 and $10.1 billion in 2025. Some centers run full weekdays for toddlers. Here's what the money shows, and what it doesn't.
By Dr. Hanna ShanarEmergency medicine physician
Health claims, checked by a doctor.
Viral health claims, checked against the evidence by a practising physician. One claim, one verdict, every source shown.
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Vaccines do not cause autism. Here is every study, and the fraud that started the claim.
One retracted paper on 12 children launched a global scare. Since then, studies covering more than two million children in seven countries have found no link between any vaccine and autism.
Read the evidence · 12 minMore fact-checks
Are doctors rich? Eventually. Here are five paths that get there as fast or faster.
The median doctor earns $276,000 a year. So why do so many hit their first million later than people who never went to medical school? Here's the data, and the five paths that match or beat medicine.
Lifestyle or pills for high blood pressure? The evidence says it was never either-or.
Half of American adults have high blood pressure, and many are told to fix it with diet and exercise first. Here's what each route does to how long you live, what it costs, and what 'change your lifestyle' really asks of people.
Autism diagnoses have climbed for two decades. Most of the story is how we define it.
In 2000, 1 in 150 American 8-year-olds had an autism diagnosis. By 2022 it was 1 in 31. Here's what changed: the children, or the way we count them.
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