Family Seeing Positive Results from Bill Covering Insurance Costs for Autism
By: Jocelyn Tovar, KARK 4 News
Updated: February 26, 2013
Arkansas has the seventh-highest rate of autism in the nation, and as more children are diagnosed with the disorder, more families are battling to beat it.
The state passed legislation to help families with that fight, allowing autistic children to get expensive therapies covered by insurance providers.
One in nearly 100 children are like little Brody, who within the first three years of his life began to see signs of autism.
A disorder that changes the way a child develops, autism affects the way children understand emotions.
Recognizing emotions is something Brody and his therapist go over during their applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy, an expensive treatment that before 2012 most insurance policies did not cover.
Mothers with autistic children, like Dianna Varady, who is also advocacy chair for Autism Speaks in Arkansas, swears by the therapy that monitors each child's developmental progress.
"He's made tremendous progress in a matter of 6, 8 months," she says. "He's making more progress than he did the last two years."
Which is why Varady, along with Representative and now Senator Uvalde Lindsey pushed for legislation mandating coverage by insurance companies.
"Seeing mothers cry about lack of coverage in Medicaid, the inability to access programs, extreme costs being denied for various reasons," Lindsey says are just some of the reasons he co-chaired the legislation autism task force.
"Families are seeing the benefit of the insurance program that covers those most fragile kids," he says. "We're not done though, there will be things we need to do to continue that."
House Bill 1315 started an insurance policy governed by the state ensured coverage passed in 2011 and became effective in January 2012.
"That's great, but it's still only 40 percent of families in Arkansas," he says. "We'd like to see that go up for obvious reasons."
One of those reasons being so children like Brody can continue to get the attention that can help put them on a path to a successful future.
The state passed legislation to help families with that fight, allowing autistic children to get expensive therapies covered by insurance providers.
One in nearly 100 children are like little Brody, who within the first three years of his life began to see signs of autism.
A disorder that changes the way a child develops, autism affects the way children understand emotions.
Recognizing emotions is something Brody and his therapist go over during their applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy, an expensive treatment that before 2012 most insurance policies did not cover.
Mothers with autistic children, like Dianna Varady, who is also advocacy chair for Autism Speaks in Arkansas, swears by the therapy that monitors each child's developmental progress.
"He's made tremendous progress in a matter of 6, 8 months," she says. "He's making more progress than he did the last two years."
Which is why Varady, along with Representative and now Senator Uvalde Lindsey pushed for legislation mandating coverage by insurance companies.
"Seeing mothers cry about lack of coverage in Medicaid, the inability to access programs, extreme costs being denied for various reasons," Lindsey says are just some of the reasons he co-chaired the legislation autism task force.
"Families are seeing the benefit of the insurance program that covers those most fragile kids," he says. "We're not done though, there will be things we need to do to continue that."
House Bill 1315 started an insurance policy governed by the state ensured coverage passed in 2011 and became effective in January 2012.
"That's great, but it's still only 40 percent of families in Arkansas," he says. "We'd like to see that go up for obvious reasons."
One of those reasons being so children like Brody can continue to get the attention that can help put them on a path to a successful future.
