In reaction to the responses to a poll in a previous diary, I subsequently wrote a diary which outlined which states mandate private insurance coverage for autism. In just the last two-plus weeks, the story has gotten better. On May 29th, the governor of Nevada signed a bill mandating private insurance coverage. And, nearly contemporaneous with this event, the Connecticut State House overwhelmingly passed similar legislation, which had already been passed unanimously in the State Senate. That bill needs only the Governor's signature. In Colorado, more good news.
Now it's time to help our military families. More below the fold:
First, for those who wonder why this is important, a true story from a a column in the Hartford Courant lauding passage of the CT bill, written by Stan Simpson, whose 5-year old son Cash'an is autisic:
Zach's situation a decade ago magnifies the absurdity of misaligned insurance policy. Her health insurance company would not pay for Kyle's speech therapy when he was 2 and had stopped talking at 15 months. Why? The insurance company didn't cover autism.
It took Kyle to contract leukemia and suffer chemotherapy poisoning, which led to a brain injury, for the insurance company to cover his speech therapy.
You see, the insurance would cover speech therapy and occupational therapy if Kyle had a brain injury, but not a neurological disorder like autism.
Now, as the New York legislature considers a similar bipartisan bill, Kirsten Gillibrand, along with Dick Durbin, has moved to level the playing field for military families.
In a bill entitled the Uniformed Services with Autism (USA) Heroes Act, Gilliland is pushing for the caps to be increased so that military families can pay for comprehensive ABA services.
From the news release:
TRICARE – the military health insurance program – currently considers ABA therapy special education and not medically necessary treatment, and caps coverage for ABA at $3,000 a month. That amounts to only 16 hours of therapy a month – a fraction of what’s necessary to actually improve the life of a child suffering from autism. As a result, military families are forced to choose between paying out-of-pocket to get the therapy their children need, or forgoing therapy altogether. What is worse, thousands of military families are forced to the bottom of long waiting lists for a specialist each time they are relocated.
To combat these problems and help take the strain of military families living with autism, Senator Gillibrand is authoring and introducing the USA Heroes Act to require TRICARE to cover autism treatment, including ABA therapy to help military families get the care their children need.
A recent article in the Redstone Rocket, a paper catering to the military community in Huntsville, Alabama details how hard autism can be for a military family to deal with. The story details how families have to sacrifice to take care of their autistic children. One father, National Guard Staff Sergeant Tubberville, commutes to Montgomery from Huntsville, so that his son can receive services in Huntsville. Another couple, the Jacksons, live apart, with Lt. Colonel Billy Jackson living and working in Washington, DC.
And then there is the French family:
While the Jacksons have made the decision to live apart for now so that Lucas can get the therapy he needs, the French family has decided that retirement is the best solution for their family situation in Huntsville.
"Our goal is to be back together," French said. "That's the best thing for Brandon and for our other child, 10-year-old Tyler, and for my wife, Karen. But we will give up benefits."
I urge you to read the entire article.
Let's face it, a military career, as the article further outlines, places strains on a family which can make helping an autistic child problematic at best. But don't those families who place themselves on the line for us deserve our best efforts to support them? I think so.
If you do too, let your Senator know you support this effort. I know this community has, at best, a problematic relationship with Kirsten Gillibrand. That doesn't mean we shouldn't support this effort. Call your Senators, and tell them to get on board. Oh, and if your Senator(s) is (are) Republican, call anyway. If there is one thing I've noticed, autism support cuts across party lines. And with the military angle, the Republicans may feel an obligation, if only for PR purposes.