Today, as I’m sifting through and updating old insurance claims for the insurance agency I work for (as opposed to one of the several other things I do), I’m joined today by my youngest daughter Delaney, pictured at the left.
Delaney (or Laney, as we call her) is off school today, as she’s in a special program designed to help her integrate better with the other kids in her classroom, and work on getting her returned into that setting. Today, the instructors are elsewhere, so she’s having a rare day off.
Delaney is one of the 1 in 68 children in our society who live with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. It can range from a mild cases, such as a light instance of Auspergers, into far more profound examples. Laney has a mixture of symptoms, which at times can be quite challenging, but there are also people far worse off than we are.
Over the past few years, a number of parents across the state loosely banded together after some of the major health insurers insurers in the state withdrew coverage for certain treatments that had been covered at the same time coverage for the treatments was being recognized and further extended
through state and federal programs.
So, we pushed for recognition of the therapy, and some extensions of coverage, which have taken us to this point.
Yesterday, surrounded by legislators, and Lisa Stanley, who has lobbied on a volunteer basis for the last 3 years, who has shepherded this through the legislature for going on 3 years now, House Bill 1195 was signed by Governor Daugaard to further revise certain provisions regarding health coverage for applied behavior analysis, which is a recognized therapy for Autism.
No one knows what causes Autism (No it’s not vaccines. Seriously, that’s proven to be crazytalk). But what we do know is that through better diagnosis, it appears to be more prevalent than we’d thought. And early treatment is extremely, extremely important. It can take many children with that diagnosis and actually treat them.
Children with Autism are the single most expensive type of disability that school districts may have to address to educate the child. With early intervention, Some kids can be helped to the point where you’d never know they have a disability, and they go on to live normal lives. Without treatment, children with Autism become adults with Autism, and they continue to be ever more expensive for state taxpayers.
The Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) treatment isn’t a silver bullet. Not all kids respond, or respond fully. But it helps a great number of kids, and helps to allow them to be productive taxpayers, if not self-supporting. Which is all they and we can want. By allowing coverage for some treatment now, it saves millions for taxpayers down the line.
This is legislation that legislators can point to as something good that they did for a lot of South Dakotans this year. I’d echo that, and offer my family’s thanks as well. Especially for Laney.