An autism bill that is good but not perfect

May 4, 2008

When you write an email or letter to your respective senator or

assembly person, don't forget to thank she/he for voting for a bill

that should have been passed 10 years ago. And remind them the effort

you took in sending them a personal message about your individual and

personal relationship with autism even though their response was not

personal and said the same thing to everyone which included a

statement which said not to expect a reply.

If you look at the legislative process for this bill you will see the

Senate held the bill hostage until the Assembly agreed to accept the

Senate version with no added amendments. The assembly version

included insurance coverage for children with other impairments other

than autism but that was put aside. Autism parents are now a selected

group.

I understand the argument that it is better to pass something that is

good and not necessarily perfect. Perhaps the word, " good " , is too

strong.

Look at the coverage exclusions. If you don't belong to a group

policy of 50 or more, you are not covered. If you are not part of a

group policy, you are not covered. If you are covered by an employer

who is self-insured and many large employers are self-insured, you

are not covered.

It may be interesting to see how many families are covered or more

importantly, how many are not covered.

Ah, yes. We got our foot in the door. Or was our foot slammed by the

door?

The answer is in the voting booth. Be careful who you vote for in the

Senate at the next election. Be an elephant and don't forget!

May 4, 2008

Dear 0323_44,

I wanted to address a couple of your statements and concerns in your

last email.

First, the goal of this legislation was to provide a foundation for

insurance reform for children with autism in the state of Florida.

The intentions of the legislation was never to provide a foundation

for all children with developmental disabilities. Additionally,

sometimes there is a method to the madness and changes have to come

incrementally.

The Small Business Administration always claims that they they need

lower health insurance costs to remain competitive. In this case,

with one in every 68 households being affected by autism and those

statistics climbing every single day, they will eventually begin to

realize that they are removing themselves from selectively attracting

dedicated, intelligent employees with such an exclusion. They will

eventually provide the coverage and once health insurance companies

begin to have that coverage available for companies above 50

employees, they might even be able to request that riders be present

to assist their employees in the very near future.

Additionally, with regard to self-insured companies, now employees of

those companies who have children with autism have a blueprint to

walk into the HR departments of those companies and ask that their

children not be discriminated against by the company's policy.

Especially once this is signed into law by Governor Crist as we all

expect it will be. It gives them an advantage they never had before

in making that request...and if they bind together in a grassroots

effort, go in all at once and request this of their HR department,

the chances that they will receive what they ask for are that much

more magnified.

Lastly, I would never send a letter to a politician saying " thanks

for doing this but you should have voted for it 10 years ago when it

first came up. " Primarily because this isn't the piece of

legislation that came up 10 years ago. 10 years ago it limited the

coverage to $10,000 per year. This legislation more than triples

that coverage. Yes this would have been nice to have 10 years ago

prior to the birth of my son, prior to his diagnosis. But the past

is the past. No one can do anything about the past. Ten years ago

autism was hardly anywhere on anyone's radar. It wasn't in the press

but a couple of times a year. It affected less children.

Hindsight is always 20/20. Even for politicians.

They have done the right thing now. And we should be tremendously

grateful that they have heard the families of Florida and perhaps set

an example to the rest of the nation.

With kindest regards,

Sharon

>

> When you write an email or letter to your respective senator or

> assembly person, don't forget to thank she/he for voting for a bill

> that should have been passed 10 years ago. And remind them the

effort

> you took in sending them a personal message about your individual

and

> personal relationship with autism even though their response was

not

> personal and said the same thing to everyone which included a

> statement which said not to expect a reply.

> If you look at the legislative process for this bill you will see

the

> Senate held the bill hostage until the Assembly agreed to accept

the

> Senate version with no added amendments. The assembly version

> included insurance coverage for children with other impairments

other

> than autism but that was put aside. Autism parents are now a

selected

> group.

> I understand the argument that it is better to pass something that

is

> good and not necessarily perfect. Perhaps the word, " good " , is too

> strong.

> Look at the coverage exclusions. If you don't belong to a group

> policy of 50 or more, you are not covered. If you are not part of a

> group policy, you are not covered. If you are covered by an

employer

> who is self-insured and many large employers are self-insured, you

> are not covered.

> It may be interesting to see how many families are covered or more

> importantly, how many are not covered.

> Ah, yes. We got our foot in the door. Or was our foot slammed by

the

> door?

> The answer is in the voting booth. Be careful who you vote for in

the

> Senate at the next election. Be an elephant and don't forget!

>

May 4, 2008