It’s election time and that means the political boxing gloves are on.  Key provisions of new federal health care legislation come into effect this week and Democrats are taking advantage of the political climate to emphasize Republican senate candidate Sharron Angle’s opposition to mandating insurance coverage for basic illnesses.
I’m trying to think of any reason why someone, Democrat or Republican, would want to prevent a child with autism from receiving the services he/she needs to live a productive life but for the life of me I can’t so if anyone reading this blog can, please, enlighten me.
Media publications uncovered a video of Angle at a 2009 tea party rally released by the party’s tracker, Angle appears to mock a recently passed Nevada mandate for insurance carriers to cover treatment for autism.
“Take off the mandates for coverage in the state of Nevada and all over the United States,” she shouts. “But here you know what I’m talking about. You’re paying for things you don’t even need.

“They just passed the latest one, is everything that they want to throw at us now is covered under ‘autism’,” she said, using exaggerated air quotes to deliver the word ‘autism.’

This was the title of a blog I found on Twitter last week. The title enticed me so I clicked on the link and all that was written was “one can only hope”. Poignant to say the least.  The writer is a mother of a 12-year old boy with autism. Her post came as a result of a ruling some two weeks ago by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit which upheld an earlier ruling in which a lower court rejected a connection between vaccines and autism.  For the past decade, the notion that vaccines might in some way contribute to a child becoming autistic has occupied quite a bit of time and energy in the autism community and among autism advocates. With a new school year beginning, may the focus on discussions about autism shift more and more to being about how we can best help children with autism and how we can help parents get these fundamental services paid for.  Amen.

Last month Massachusetts became the 23rd state to pass autism insurance reform.  They follow New Hampshire, which passed reform earlier in the summer.  With a bill waiting to be signed in NY, it seems that systemic change is taking place as a growing number of states across the USA are passing mandates. 13 other states have endorsed autism insurance reform bills and 9 more (including California) have bills pending introduction or endorsement. The Massachusetts bill requires insurance coverage of medically necessary autism treatments, including evidence-based behavioral health treatments. To get specifics on the Massachusetts bill or status on insurance mandates in other states, click here.