Untimely care: How the modern logics of coverage and medicine compromise children's health and development

How do families manage when health care systems do not “cover” and clinicians do not acknowledge their children's condition? This article presents an ethnographic study in the Northeastern region of the United States with 20 families with children diagnosed with Pediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS)/Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections (PANDAS). Two of the 20 families had moved to the U.S. seeking care. The for-profit structure of the U.S. health care system resulted in costly and lengthy therapeutic journeys to access a diagnosis and adequate treatments. In the U.S., PANS/PANDAS coverage depends on legislation, advocacy, clinical characteristics of each child, and how for-profit insurance companies react to an increased demand for a given service. Many medical professionals, both in the U.S. and in other countries, refuse to acknowledge the condition or offer effective treatments that lack “acceptable” evidence. We argue that the financial logic behind coverage exists across modern health care systems and imposes restrictions and exclusions that impede access to care. Thus, untimely care, the time gap from PANS/PANDAS symptoms to diagnosis and treatment is the result of the modern logics that structure medicine and coverage. The results of this study illustrate how modern medicine and coverage fail to protect families with children with PANS/PANDAS against catastrophic expenses and often block care that would prevent developmental disruptions and losses, avoid much suffering, and even save costs to health care systems. New and controversial conditions like PANS/PANDAS highlight the importance of separating the financial logics behind proposals such as “universal health coverage” from the provision of comprehensive forms of care that acknowledge uncertainty and prioritize action and flexibility.