A fight to make insurance companies cover autism has again won the backing of the Senate’s top leaders, who introduced legislation Wednesday despite warnings it would increase health insurance premiums across Georgia.
Senate Bill 1 will likely reignite one of the most controversial issues from last year's legislative session, when the chamber used a similar proposal as a wedge that eventually sank both it and a popular medical marijuana bill. With the state Legislature starting fresh this week in the first of a two-year cycle, supporters believe they have enough time to find common ground with opponents.
"Children with untreated autism, No. 1, their lives don't reach full potential," said state Sen. Charlie Bethel, R-Dalton, who is sponsoring SB 1 as chairman of the Senate Insurance and Labor Committee. "No. 2, the taxpayer is responsible for them every time they walk into a public school for a new individualized education program. Most of them (left) untreated end up in our criminal justice system and/or our mental health system. We're one in 64, one in 68 births, depending on whose statistics you're looking at. We're talking about a lot of children" who could benefit from help, Bethel said.
Among the bill's more than two dozen co-sponsors is a who's who in the chamber: Senate President Pro Tem David Shafer, R-Duluth; Majority Leader Bill Cowsert, R-Athens; Minority Leader Steve Henson, D-Tucker; and Sen. Butch Miller, R-Gainesville, one of Gov. Nathan Deal's floor leaders. Deal included autism coverage in the State Employee Health Plan starting last year, although this push would mandate it statewide.
Opponents remain unswayed.
“At the end of the day, it’s still a new mandate and government enforcing its will on small employers,” said Kyle Jackson, the state director for the National Federation of Independent Business. Bethel, he added, “has tried to draft a bill with the least effect on small employers. I anticipate a cordial discussion. We just happen to disagree on this issue.”
Although it flared noticeably last year, hundreds of advocates have spent at least six years pushing for autism coverage, many of them inspired by a young Georgia girl named Ava Bullard. Ava is the great-niece of Senate Transportation Chairman Tommie Williams, R-Lyons, the chamber's former president pro tem. She began applied behavioral therapy for autism at age 3 and now functions well.
Previous efforts were broad, but starting last year, senators narrowed their reach in an effort to win passage. Those limits remain: SB 1 among other things would apply only to children 6 years and younger; annual payouts would be limited to $35,000; and businesses with 10 or fewer employees would be exempt.
The bill would exempt insurers from having to cover autism if they could verify it would raise all premiums by more than 1 percent. The bill would also not apply to large companies that self-insure employees’ coverage — although many of them, including Home Depot and Georgia Power’s parent, the Southern Co., already provide something similar.
At least 34 states mandate private health insurance coverage for autism.
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