Supporters of bills SB 414, 415, and 981 decked themselves out in red, wore multi-colored puzzle piece pins, and possibly even made the trip to Lansing this afternoon- packing into the Senate Health Policy Committee hearing.
The hearing on the three-bill autism insurance reform package began today. The bills would require insurance companies to provide coverage of autism diagnosis and treatment, and also create an autism coverage incentive program for possible reimbursement for claims paid to diagnose and treat autism.
Since the majority of parents pay out-of-pocket for therapy treatment for their autistic children, this is fantastic news!
If this sounds familiar- SBs 414 and 415 were introduced last summer. Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville (R-Monroe) recently added the revision, which would set up a new state fund to provide reimbursement for the cost of the paid claims.
The bills are estimated to cost approximately $15 million a year (at least to start), and cover an autistic child up to the age of 18.
It's estimated that about 15,000 children in Michigan have autism spectrum disorder, and 1,000 are born each year. Lifetime costs for each child are around $3.7 million. Since 2001, the number of children with autism in MI schools has risen from 5,680 to over 15,000. State Senator Tupac Hunter (D-Detroit) said only 15 percent of children in MI diagnosed with autism get the services they need.
Nicole Miller of the Autism Resource Network stated, "Early intervention is really the key to providing a lifelong benefit for individuals. Not to say that anyone who gets the correct, appropriate, most evident sapce therapy doesn't benefit, but what we want is for all individuals to have the greatest opportunity for independence that they can possibly have in their life. And this is one of the best ways to make that happen." Supporters point out this will not only enable families to provide their autistic children with the services and professionals to help them, but it will also bring more of those specialists and professionals into our area- we are currently lacking those service providers.
While most are in favor of the bill package passing, opponents argue that it's unfair to only cover autism- it should be written to cover other mental disorders as well.
For more information, please contact the Autism Insurance Mandate (AIM), Autism Votes, or the Autism Resource Network (autismresourcenetwork.org).
