Autism Legislation in WI, OK, & NJ
February 27, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Adulthood, Legislation, Living Arrangements, New Jersey
The Wisconsin Senate has passed a bill requiring insurance companies to cover autism, but the bill still has to pass the state’s Assembly. And in Oklahoma, families with autistic children are calling on the state Senate to pass “Nick’s Law, which would require health insurance policies cover diagnosis, treatment and therapy for autism spectrum disorders.
Here in my own state of New Jersey, the state Assembly’s Health and Senior Services Committee has released six new autism bills on Monday; last September, New Jersey Governor Jon seph S. Corzine signed a package of seven bills relating to autism; go here for details about the bills. The new “second phase” of autism bills calls for: insurance coverage for treatments (applied behavior analysis or ABA); creation of a new office to handle autism-related issues in the Department of the Public advocate to pair families with services and also of a one-stop shop autism Web site to make it easier for families in-need of assistance; creation of a special identification card in the case of emergencies for autistic residents; supporting choice in housing by supporting autistic adults who have aged out of the juvenile system living independently with assistance; and calls for the creation of new peer-programs to partner students and autistic classmates to foster social interaction among all students in middle and high school. But will these new measures take away funding and supports from others with developmental disabilities, asks the assistant executive director of the Arc of New Jersey in the Courier Post Online?
Jeff Stimpson
Jill Cornfield
New Jersey Governor Joseph Corzine?
Jon
Here in Wisconsin, we’re hoping. And at the same time, we’re not sure how much good it will do. It all depends on how the law and the insurance companies decide to define services, medical and otherwise.
The NJ insurance law specifically mentions funding ABA—but it’s a start.
Who is going to pay for all these programs?
Policies. The analyses so far on the autism bills is that the added cost is <$4.50/mo.policy to fully fund. Depending on what is requested and what the language is, some bills require a ceiling of <1% increase/annum cost in individual policies.
Someone is going to pay for it somewhere…either Medicaid waiver, or IDEA or personal out of pocket which, depending on circumstance can include bankruptcy or loss of income to the tax base by having one parent drop out.
The projected larger costs of not providing some of these services early is est. to be 4X-10X in future.
Just to point out who is paying for what–Eleanor’s diagnosis was the last bill reimbursed to use in relation to our health insurance, so from our point of view we are paying (a lot) into policies which provide almost no coverage for one member of our family but is providing coverage for someone else’s condition.