Detroit News- Responses to editorial printed on February 22nd

Friday, February 22, 2008

Letter

Should Michigan require autism coverage?

End insurance bias
I read the Feb. 19 article with a mixture of hope and dismay ("Parents of autistic kids fight for aid"). The News quoted some parents and experts in the autism field. That was very encouraging. The article did not mention the support of the Michigan Education Association or some intermediate school district superintendents for these bills, and that was disappointing.

I and many other residents are tired of insurance companies discriminating against people with autism. I know of one family that has an autistic child who was refused therapy but another child without autism was covered for the identical therapy.

...................................................................................

Try alternative to mandate
I have empathy with anyone who cannot pay for medical care for their children. Such parents and their advocates, however, should use caution in expressing their frustration to avoid a backlash. There is no "deliberate" exclusion from insurance coverage for autistic children. Most health programs are developed from the needs of the participants in the plan. If those who initially accepted a plan did not see a need for a given protection, it was not included, and this kept costs down.

Rather than mandating coverage, perhaps insurance companies could provide riders that potential parents could purchase for noncovered conditions that they could then pray not to have to use.

...................................................................................

Other states see benefits
Does anyone believe numerous states would pass autism mandate legislation if the resulting increase in cost was 45 percent as stated in the article? Why have many other states passed autism legislation despite concerns about duplicate services? Is it because these concerns are propaganda? My family has Blue Cross coverage, and we have always been told that autism is not a covered benefit under our plan. This legislation will end the discrimination.

...................................................................................


Explaining autism's rise
Don't tell me we have better systems of detection and reporting autism than in the 1950s. Ask 70-year-old or 80-year-old former teachers if they knew about autism 25 years ago. Now every unruly child a teacher meets is either autistic or has attention deficit disorder.

...................................................................................


Early intervention works
As a professional who provides regular diagnostic and intervention services to children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, I can attest to the desperate needs of families to seek affordable help for their children. This is a disorder which takes a significant toll on the emotional and physical well-being of families. Add to that the financial burden of intervention, and you can understand why 85 percent of marriages in the families of a child with ASD end in divorce.

However, recent research has shown the significant effect of early intervention on the later learning and functional outcomes for children with ASD; what cost is expended early on will come back tenfold as these children progress through their school years. This is why we owe it to these parents to support health coverage for this disorder.

...................................................................................


Getting therapy is a battle
I would like to refute the claim by Jon Ogar of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan that it is already covering autism therapies/treatment. I have been refused the cost of even covering the diagnosis of my son's condition, let alone the therapies that he should be getting. I had to fight for more than a year to get even the original diagnosis covered. Then I was told that the therapies that were deemed medically necessary by my son's doctors would not be covered.