California Insurance Article | Autism PDD
SACRAMENTO — Autism. It is a disease that affects 1 in 150 kids, yet
many health insurance companies in California are looking the other way
when it comes to complete coverage.
SACRAMENTO - Government agencies are facing a new public health
crisis - a dramatic increase in autistic children - and must swiftly
explore how best to provide better care and protection for them over
their lifetimes, a blue-ribbon state commission concluded Tuesday.
The California Legislative Blue Ribbon Commission on Autism said its
overall findings included a lack of screening for the disorder, poor
public awareness generally, barriers to seeking care for the afflicted,
and overlapping efforts between the public and private sectors that
need to be better coordinated.
"Throughout the state," the report says, "there is an intense need to
plan for and address the impending housing, transportation, employment
and educational needs of the tsunami of young people with" autism.
The panel's report recommended the state adopt legislation next year to immediately address such problems.
The panel also concluded that urgent efforts should be made to better
educate police and judges so they don't accidentally abuse those with
the disorder, which can be characterized by seemingly aggressive
behavior.
Senate leader Don Perata, an Oakland Democrat, who authored a bill two
years ago forming the 16-member panel, said the report will allow
lawmakers "an opportunity to link the science, knowledge and best
practices regarding autism to public policy."
The commission's recommendations included:
• Bolstering early identification and intervention.
The fight is on to change the way insurance companies deal with treatment.
A blue ribbon commission has been meeting for more than a year, trying to address the concerns of California families.
Bay Area Phd. Karen Fessel has the means to send 12-year-old Aaron to a
private academy, but she wants her provider to contribute to some of
the costs. "On the insurance side, we have had to fight for speech
therapy, for occupational therapy, for social skills therapy.It's
several hundred dollars a month," she said.
Chuck Genseal, from Madera has a granddaughter with autism. "They will
do anything for her medically speaking. If she has a sore throat, an
earache... They are fabulous for that. Great for that," he said.
But he also says the leg braces, part of physical therapy, aren't
covered, and neither is her behavioral therapy, where she learns how to
interact with other kids.
Andrea Diaz is from Fresno county. Her son is taking advantage of
public school, but there's no money for any extra therapy."We're
finding that the school districts are little short, the insurance isn't
covering a lot of things... So we're runnin' into a brick wall a little
bit," she said.
Kaiser, one of the state's largest providers points out that is does
cover autism treatment, and not only does Kaiser have an autism
evaluation center in Rancho Cordova, but they have a member on this
commission.
Yet autism advocates say as an industry, private providers have a long
way to go. They say as a society can pay now, or pay later.
"The aging of these autistic kids is going to be a huge burden on
society if we don't take care of them, right now. She could be trained
to do something. Maybe some kind of a job. I don't know what that is.
But there's a job for her in this world." said Genseal.
The end game of all this, is, of course, legislation. The commission
hopes to turn all of these recommendations into a proposed law by
January.
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• Creating a statewide public awareness campaign.
The disorder has increased more than 600 percent in recent years, now affecting about one in every 150 children. It is the fastest growing serious developmental disability in the United States.
Read the report at: http://senweb03.senate.ca.gov/ autism/documents/whatsnew/ Consolidated_ASD_DRAFT_ 9-12.pdf Contact Steve Geissinger at sgeissinger@angnewspapers.com or (916) 447-9302.
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