Autism Speaks, State Representative L’italien, AFAM Join Massachusetts Autism Community In Calling For An End To Autism Insurance Discrimination
Joint Committee Hearing Explores Legislation Requiring Insurers to Cover Autism Diagnosis and Treatment
NEW YORK, NY (October 21, 2009) -- Autism Speaks, State Representative Barbara L’Italien, and Advocates For Autism of Massachusetts (AFAM) today joined parents of children with autism and other autism advocates in calling on the state legislature to pass autism insurance reform legislation at a hearing before the Joint Financial Services Committee. Many advocates testified at the hearing, including Lorri Unumb, Senior Policy Advisor and Counsel for Autism Speaks and mother of a mother of an eight-year-old son with autism, and Larry Cancro, Senior Vice President of the Boston Red Sox and Autism Speaks New England Chapter Board Chair.
The bill, House Bill 3809, is sponsored by State Representative L’Italien (18th Essex District), Vice Chair of Ways and Means, and State Senate Majority Leader Frederick Berry (2nd Essex District), and seeks to end private insurance companies’ discrimination against children with autism by requiring coverage of medically necessary autism treatments, including evidence-based behavioral health treatments. The bill has been endorsed by Boston Mayor Tom Menino, The Arc of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Developmental Disabilities Council, and to date has over 111 legislative co-sponsors.
“The hearing today in the Massachusetts legislature on the autism insurance reform bill is another significant step forward in the national effort to secure autism insurance coverage in all fifty states and provide families with the help they so desperately need and deserve,” said Bob Wright, Autism Speaks co-founder. “We thank Representative L’Italien and Senator Berry for having the courage to put families and their needs first.”
Massachusetts is one of thirty-five states that do not require private insurance companies to cover even essential autism treatments and services. In the absence of coverage, families often pay as much as they can out-of-pocket for services that can cost upwards of $50,000 per year. In the process, many risk their homes and the educations of their unaffected children – essentially mortgaging their entire futures.
“AFAM identified lack of insurance coverage for autism treatment as a key issue affecting our community several years ago,” said Amy Weinstock, Chair of the AFAM Insurance Working Group. “This mission has taken on even more urgency in the current economic environment, where so many of the public and private support systems that our families rely on find themselves subject to unprecedented constraints and cutbacks. AFAM is most grateful to Representative Barbara L’Italien and Senator Fred Berry for sponsoring this critical legislation.”
Fifteen states – Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin -- have enacted this legislation. An amendment that requires coverage of behavioral health treatments has also been added to the health care reform bills currently moving through Congress. |
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