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<p class="MsoNormal">Blind Woman Denied Guide Dog<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">By George Fritz<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Stamford, Connecticut – Yesterday, Sarah Kennedy, 27, of Stamford, learned that her request for a guide dog was denied by her health insurance provider, which will remain unnamed. Kennedy, who is totally blind, works as a part-time massage
therapist and is a full-time mother to her two-year-old daughter Peyton.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">She needs to retire her current guide dog, Nugget, so she applied for a new guide dog. “I need a guide dog to continue going to work,” she says. “Two nights per week, my husband comes home, and I go work a few hours. I like my job and want
to stay fresh.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Kennedy doesn’t only use her guide dog to go to work. She goes grocery shopping, runs errands, and even takes her daughter Peyton to the park during the day just like other moms.
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<p class="MsoNormal">It used to be that guide dogs came at little to no cost to their handlers, and no doctor or health insurance company had to approve people to get one. “I would just pay for the dog myself, but I don’t have that kind of money,” says Kennedy.
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<p class="MsoNormal">What might even be the most surprising is the reason she was denied. “The health insurance company said I couldn’t have a new guide dog because it might be a threat to my daughter. It’s a guide dog, not some stray animal.” In fact, guide
dog schools spend tens of thousands of dollars training dogs, which is what makes them so expensive, and dogs that pose any threat of aggression are removed from the program. “Health insurance companies just don’t understand guide dogs and shouldn’t decline
a request that they don’t understand.”<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">While some may say this sounds illegal, it is all thanks to Senate Bill 234, a bill passed by the Connecticut General Assembly on the same day her daughter was born. Blind people in Connecticut used to be able to make their own decisions
about whether or not to get a guide dog. Guide dogs were funded by philanthropic donations, but, after guide dogs became funded by health insurance, the donors disappeared.
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<p class="MsoNormal">Kennedy is stuck. She is considering starting an organization for blind people in Connecticut to advocate for themselves and dreams of the day when the guide dog system returns to the good old days.<o:p></o:p></p>
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