Autism bill goes on to the full Senate

Last week a Senate committee endorsed a House-passed bill requiring state-regulated health insurers to cover the diagnosis and treatment of children with autism. According to a KHI News Service article, bills requiring state-regulated health insurers to cover autism have been the subject of legislative debate for the past six years.

This measure would require insurers to cover a type of therapy known as “applied behavior analysis" for up to 25 hours a week for autistic children diagnosed between birth and age 5. The treatments would be covered for four years, meaning that a child diagnosed at 2 would have access to up to 25 hours of the therapy a week until reaching age 6; a child diagnosed at 4 would have access until age 8. After the four years, coverage for the therapy could be limited to 10 hours per week. Children diagnosed after age 6 would be eligible for 10 hours per week. The coverage could end when the child turns 12.

Advocates for families with autistic children have argued that 10 hours per week wouldn't be enough and that 25 hours should be considered the bare minimum. Forty or more hours, they said, might be needed by severely autistic children.

Brandy Porter, a Manhattan attorney whose 10-year-old son, Will, is autistic, asked committee members to consider expanding the coverage to include children up to age 18.

“Cutting off the age limit at 12 would be failing our children,” she said. “It will not give them the opportunity to reach their full potential because skills will arise that can’t be taught prior to age 12.”

After the committee vote, Porter expressed support for the bill. “I’m glad something was passed,” she said. “It’s been a long six years. It’s not a perfect bill by any means, but I guess it is something. My child’s still going to get services because I pay for them out of pocket and I’m not going to stop.”

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