First, I applaud you for caring for these children and looking out for their interests. As far as your question: I don’t want to be pessimistic, but I think this bill will have a very narrow application. First off, our legislature has a history of trying to look progressive, but utterly failing in terms of facilitating, funding, and implementing these types of bills.

Second, in order to qualify, the child would have to be already covered by a large group health insurance policy. If you can get over that hurdle, then I would guess that the date the bill goes into effect would be July 1.

Third, at some point, these many parents will be seeking out ABA and related therapies for their children — and there will be a real bottleneck situation. There will not be enough therapists to cover all the children because previously there was no “insurance-covered therapy market”; it was an “out-of-pocket, cash market”.

And now, since autism is the ONLY group covered, more and more parents will flock to their children’s doctors and psychologists to get an “autism spectrum disorder” diagnosis so that their child could qualify for the much needed therapy. Obviously, I think it’s going to be a real mess. If you know someone who would qualify under this bill, my advice to them would be to establish a therapist now — before the bill goes into effect — before a therapist shortage occurs.

Good luck to you…

Shawn Lupella

I’m a Florida resident for 18 years and I have two grandchildren with me that are disabled due to autism.

Can you tell me when and how do my grandchildren benefit
from the autism bill passing?

Thank you,

Edward VerVane
ed3@netzero.net