Let's hope they pass this bill, it's time for a change

Nevada leaders are discussing a bill this legislative session could change the lives of children with autism and those of their families as well.

Assembly Bill 162 would mandate insurance coverage for autism screening and treatment. It can cost as much as $40,000 a year for effective treatment and right now many providers refuse to cover it. Proponents say if we don't pay it now, we'll pay ten times the amount or more later.

Lawmakers, autism advocates, and insurance companies are close to making the bill a reality.

Four-year-old Cameron Kmetz has autism, but you wouldn't know it. Two years of therapy, called behavioral analysis, has transformed him. When Cameron was diagnosed with autism, he couldn't speak. He wouldn't engage with other children and he withdrew into himself.

But now he plays with other kids his age, speaks in full sentences, and laughs... a lot.

Cameron's parents, Marcia and Rick Kmetz, credit his progress to intensive therapy. Cameron logs nearly 30 hours each week with five therapists. The treatment is expensive.

Explains Marcia, "I knew in my heart that this was the right program, that this was going to be the answer for my child, and then he (therapist) said it costs $2,000 a month. We both broke down in tears because we couldn't afford it. We couldn't think about affording it and we knew we had the answer in front of us, but we couldn't have access to it. "

The Kmetzs do receive some help from The Sierra Kids Foundation, but ask other families who have children with autism and they will tell you the burden is a heavy one.

"Therapy for my son is costing $30,000 a year and we just cannot afford that for much longer," said Wendy Hruska, who is caring for a child with autism.

Said parent Kevin Richards," I work six days a week. A lot of the time in the evenings, I take care of the boys so Toni (spouse) can go to work so we can make as much money as we possibly can. Even with as much money as we are making, it still doesn't come up with as much as we need to help Tyler and give him everything he needs."

A piece of legislation could provide financial relief to thousands of Nevada families coping with autism. Assembly Bill 162 would mandate insurance for autism treatment. It's treatment that is, according to experts, vital to children who suffer from autism. That treatment could allow them to live productive lives and become contributing members of society.

The bill has wide support from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers. 49 of the 63 have signed on.

Ralph Toddre is a member of the Nevada Commission on Autism Spectrum Disorders. He is optimistic that teamwork will help pass this legislation.

The legislative team working on this, Assembly-people Leslie, Conklin, Orenschall, and under the direction of one of the best referees in the state, Speaker Buckley - they want this to happen and want to help our kids. It's going to be us working together with not only the legislature, but insurance industry and advocates and I think we can all get together and come up with something that makes sense for everybody, but keeping in mind it's for the best interest of kids and families.

Toddre believes it is those kids and families who will motivate the right people to do the right thing.

We do need to get this done. We do need to get this done this time. It's the right bill at the right time and I think everyone involved believes that both the advocates and insurance industry. I hope when this is all over I can sit there and say, see, I told you, people do do the right thing. If I can't, then shame on all of us.

If the bill passes, Nevada would join a growing number of states that require insurance coverage. Three other pieces of legislation concerning autism are currently being drafted in the state legislature.

Found at this link


And more here

Awareness and detection have grown over the years, but is that the whole story? It’s an issue made timely by insurance debate

By Marshall Allen

Fri, Feb 20, 2009 (2 a.m.)
Sun Archives

* Insurers likely to get bill for autism (2-11-2009)
* No money, no treatment (12-15-2008)
* 5,000 autistic Nevadans, two bills that could help them (6-2-2007)

Sun coverage

* Archive of Sun health stories

Autism and its related disorders are confounding parents, health advocates and scientists. And now, state legislators want insurance companies to step in and help.

The disorders are difficult to identify in children because there is no biological test to confirm their presence. Thus, “autism spectrum disorders” emerge as an ominous specter during early childhood years. An autistic child may respond to the sound of a refrigerator, but not his mother’s voice. He may stare off into space, but never make eye contact with his sister. His senses may by hypersensitive, to the degree that he throws tantrums around bright lights or loud noises.

Identifying the disorders is complicated by the fact that they share characteristics — often causing an impairment in socialization — but don’t share the level of severity. A child with Asperger syndrome may look and sound normal but be unable to recognize social cues, while a severely autistic child may be totally unable to speak.

In hindsight, the signs are clear. But in the course of discovering the problems they are muddled. It can take years before parents realize a child has an autism-related developmental disorder, though experts say it can be reliably diagnosed by age 3.

Once the disorder is diagnosed, early intervention is essential to ensure a child’s development isn’t stunted. Usually this takes the form of occupational and speech therapy that may cost parents tens of thousands of dollars a year out of pocket.

Democrats in the Nevada Assembly introduced a bill this week that would require insurance companies to cover the cost of therapy. Similar legislation has passed in other states. Insurance companies complain that providing autism coverage would increase premiums, which may prompt some employers to stop providing insurance.

Autism spectrum disorders have received increased national attention as their diagnosis has increased. When autism was first described, in 1943, it was assumed that it was a low-incidence disorder, and initial studies in the 1960s suggested the disorders affected perhaps five in 10,000 children, said Catherine Rice, director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s national center for birth defects and developmental disabilities.

In the early years, however, only severely impaired children were placed in the autism spectrum. As researchers have learned more about the diseases, they have broadened the definition of what qualifies as an autism spectrum disorder — and today studies suggest about one in 150 children have some type of autism spectrum disorder.

So are there more autistic children, or is the broadening definition causing more children to be classified as autistic?

It’s impossible to say for sure, Rice said. Awareness of autism is increasing, which leads to more effective identification, but it’s also possible that it’s increasing. Even with the more inclusive definition, the number of autistic children seems to be on the rise, Rice said.

It’s not known what causes autism.

Researchers say environmental factors could contribute to the onset of the disorders. Studies have linked autism to air pollutants, pesticides, pet medications and even drugs used in the birthing process, such as Pitosin, Rice said.

“It could be anything from the exposures in our physical surroundings — chemicals around us in homes, clothes, products, medications we take and food we eat,” Rice said.

Rice said the recognition that environmental factors play a role in causing autism shows that there is common ground in the debate about whether vaccines play a role in the disorders.

“The debate has been more polarizing than it is in reality,” Rice said. “Hopefully there is common ground in recognizing that autism is more complex. It’s not going to be solely explained by biology or genetics or a single environmental cause.”


at this link