Pending Autism Legislation

So, I know there aren't a ton of people that read this blog, but for those of you who do, please read this from my Sister-in-Law, Brandy. Her son, Dax (isn't he the cutest!?), has Autism, and there is pending legislation that if passed, would greatly help families with children who have Autism. Please take a few minutes and read the below. If you agree with the legislation, please, please, please, email your representative so they know people want this passed.

Hi everybody. I was wondering if you could help us with something that has caused a severe disruption in our family, our future, and our outlook on life. We have a beautiful, sweet boy named Dax who is 21 months old. We have been worried about his development over the last nine months and recently our pediatrician confirmed our fears that he probably has autism. Here are some important facts about autism that you probably don’t know. We didn’t know, until now…

1. Autism is a treatable developmental disorder whose symptoms can be significantly improved, possibly eliminated.

2. Statistically, if you have 3 kids, you have around a 1 in 35 chance of one of them having an autism spectrum disorder.

3. If you live in Utah, and you have insurance, your insurance will NOT cover therapy to help treat autism and you will have to find a way to pay for it yourself.

4. Intense ABA Therapy (25-40 hours per week) is one of the most scientifically supported and effective treatments of Autism available and is recommended by the US Surgeon General for autistic patients.

5. ABA therapy usually costs around $30,000-50,000 per year. On average, 50% of young children who receive 2 years of intensive ABA therapy do not need special education in school by first grade and are indistinguishable from their peers afterwards. The other 50% make great strides in achieving more normal communication and emotional responses.

6. If you have a child with autism and you live in Utah, you will have three choices: (1) Move your family to a state other than Utah (the majority of the states in the US have legislation forcing insurance companies not to discriminate against kids with autism). (2) Figure out how to pay for it yourself. (Unless you’re rich, that will probably be with Credit Cards, and huge debt!) (3) Do nothing and watch your child continue to slip further and further behind, which is heartbreaking! There is VERY little money available through charities, and you can’t just go to the hospital and have them write it off.

There is proposed legislation in the Utah House of Representatives right now that will help to end our nightmare that will be voted on very soon.

You can email your representatives by clicking on this link and entering your street address:

Contact Your Representative

The bill is called HB 69, and the text of the bill can be found here:

HB 69 Text

The bill requires insurance companies not to discriminate against autistic patients in Utah. It is estimated that if the bill is passed that insurance premiums will increase by a little less than $10 per year per insurance policy. We are asking everyone to please email your representative and tell them to please support HB 69. Tell them that you would expect insurance to cover your child if they had autism.

KSL recently posted a news story about it a couple days ago.  You can watch it here:

Bill would require health insurers to pay for autism treatment

PLEASE e-mail them! Not just for our Dax, but for all of the children with autism Utah. This bill will not pass without a lot of support because the insurance companies have a lot of lobbying power. Please keep Dax in your prayers. He is such a wonderful, happy little boy, and we know that he is in there, somewhere. But without your help we may never really know our little boy.

PLEASE REPOST OR EMAIL THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW WHO LIVES IN UTAH!