‘Autistic and uncovered’

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Molly and Steve Schad say they have spent about $60,000 on various treatments for their son Harry (left) since he was diagnosed with autism five years ago. Bills under consideration in Missouri and Illinois would require insurance companies to provide some coverage for autism treatments.

Insurance companies are wary, and say mandating benefits could make premiums shoot up without necessarily providing better care. They say many autism treatments are unproven, and that much remains unknown about the disorder.

Meanwhile, parents like the Schads report that efforts to help their children are causing them financial hardships. In a recent study, parents described filing for bankruptcy, liquidating retirement funds, and stripping the equity out of their homes to pay for services not covered by insurance. Parents also reported losing income as they gave up their jobs to care for their children with autism.

Presently, about 30 states do not mandate insurance coverage for autism.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 11:37 am and is filed under autism, insurance, law, politics, therapy, treatments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.