Autism Coverage Bill Fails

[Shardik]

Source: WP

By Fredrick Kunkle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 12, 2009; Page B07

RICHMOND, Feb. 11 -- The Senate has effectively killed a bill that would have required insurers to cover autistic children, pleasing business lobbies that argued against new mandates but enraging parents who vowed revenge at the polls.

The fight over mandating autism coverage has gathered intensity nationwide and resonated especially strongly in Loudoun County and other fast-growing areas of Northern Virginia with high numbers of children.

Anger about the bill's defeat late Tuesday was magnified by what appeared to be a flip remark by a Northern Virginia lawmaker who had offered qualified backing for the cause. Moments after the vote on the bill concluded a late session, Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax) took the floor.

"I'd inquire of the clerk: Who won?" Saslaw said with a grin. "We had a pool going."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/11/AR2009021104165.html

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

1. ditch the insurance companies and we can all get health care

and these poor families with autistic children have huge expenses.

OMG.

[Shardik]

2. From your mouth...

Tings keep getting worse instead of better regarding healthcare for Americans.

[Lost in CT]

3. Why wouldn't Autism be covered????

It's a medical condition no?

It's ;like that insurance for woman that doesn't cover childbirth.

[KamaAina]

4. Or insurance that covers Vitamin V but not birth control

:grr:

[PA Democrat]

5. When my daughter was diagnosed with autism 14 years ago

I was shocked that our "great" health insurance plan had an exclusion clause in it for autism. If my kid suffered speech loss from a head injury, I would be able to get speech therapy but they refused to cover her speech therapy because of her diagnosis of autism. Likewise with behavioral intervention, occupational therapy, etc., etc.

I know of so many families who took out second mortgages, wiped out their savings, borrowed from relatives in their desperation to get help for their child. It is shameful.

[Lost in CT]

6. Hugs to You

The biggest sea-change toward Universal Health care is not from those who don't have any coverage at all but from those that thought they had coverage till they needed it.

[surrealAmerican]

7. You got that right, ...

... and that group is growing rapidly.
Welcome to DU.