By Linda H. Davis
Question: What coming social expenditure will cost more than a third of this year’s budget for the Department of Health and Human Services and be larger than the entire current budget of the Energy Department?
Answer: The bill for the tide of autistic children entering adulthood over the next 15 years, an estimated $27 billion annually in current, non-inflation-adjusted dollars by the end of that period. The number of autistic children expected to need extensive adult services by 2023 — more than 380,000 people — is roughly equal to the population of Minneapolis. If a town were created to house this group of people and their caregivers — for you can’t separate the two — it would exceed the population of all but six U.S. cities. If they formed a state, it would have four electoral votes.
