Medicaid and the iPad

File this one under example #873242 of how the federal government gets things wrong.

As you may or may not know, kids with special needs often can qualify under Medicaid (where their parents do not), or a Medicaid waiver, to cover certain medical and therapeutic expenses that would otherwise be prohibitive.  One example that I'm personally familiar with is an AAC device (which stands for Alternative Augmentative Communication).  An AAC device is any kind of assistive technology that helps a child (or, perhaps an adult who has suffered a stroke) communicate to others.  Examples include low-tech PECS boards and run all the way to dedicated picture-based "talkers" like the Dynavox or Vantage Lite.  (If you're really interested you can learn more at Dynavox and Vantage Lite).  Note that these dedicated devices - which look like archaic throwbacks to computers in the 1970s, btw - cannot do any other type of function.  And for the privilege of getting one, you can expect to pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $7-9,000.