Letters to the Editor
Autism action
February 26, 2009
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To the editor:
How to persuade the Kansas Legislature to pass progressive legislation? I speak of Kate’s Law (Senate Bill 12), which would require insurance companies operating in Kansas to cover autism treatment.
As reported in Sunday’s Journal-World, State Sen. Ruth Teichman, chairperson of the committee considering Kate’s Law, apparently opposes the bill. The stated reasons for her opposition seem insufficient and too beholden to solely business interests. The facts are that more than 1 in 150 kids born in America today will be diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, and that incidence proportion is growing.
These kids need the medical intervention treatment (starting as early in life as possible) that insurance companies now decline to cover. Recession and business-based arguments against mandating such coverage essentially amount to turning our backs on our most vulnerable kids and their desperate parents. Frankly, that’s shameful. Kansas legislators, please do the right and moral thing and support Kate’s Law.
James Skridulis,
Lawrence
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26 February 2009
at 7:13 a.m.
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PitBullGrandma (Anonymous) says…
“These kids need the medical intervention treatment (starting as early in life as possible) that insurance companies now decline to cover.”
Oh they'll cover it…it is classified as a mental illness (although it is not) and there is a monetary cap on the amount of treatment an individual can receive…as if it will eventually just go away…
26 February 2009
at 8:22 a.m.
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mom_of_three (Anonymous) says…
I know how expensive treatment can be. My eldest has Asperger's, and was diagnosed as a high school junior. I know how much better it would be if diagnosis is as early as possible.
26 February 2009
at 10:37 a.m.
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KatWrangler (Anonymous) says…
parrotuya
You are so right.
26 February 2009
at 11:08 a.m.
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Pywacket (Anonymous) says…
XD40~ No, it is decades of allowing for-profit, slimeball, extortionist insurance companies and malpractice lawyers to run the show that has made health insurance/health care so unaffordable. The insurance companies have run rough-shod over the public and dedicated health-care professionals alike and have done everything possible to specifically exclude the very people who are most in need of coverage. The lawyers have exploited every “negative” medical outcome to extract multimillion-dollar settlements in thousands of questionable cases, often against medical personnel who were doing everything right.
They are abetted by bleeding-heart, medically ignorant jurors who are only too willing to try to fix (for example) John & Sally's broken hearts with a cash jackpot when their 5-month fetus with a fatal genetic disorder couldn't be “saved” by the big bad hospital. The lawyers have convinced many that every death or chronic medical condition could/should be avoidable if only the callous docs were not incompetent. The cost of malpractice insurance goes through the roof with every settlement.
The malpractice-specialty lawyers and the insurance companies boast profits, while fewer and fewer of our best & brightest go into medicine (because it just isn't worth the emotional battering and insurance extortion) and more and more citizens are dumped from medical plans or are paying (along with their employers) higher and higher premiums and deductibles.
The money spent on mandates such as “Kate's Law” is chicken feed compared to the costs to all of us when these kids do NOT receive the help they need as children. Look at the long-term savings (in medical and judicial costs later) rather than the short-term expenditures (in therapy now) and this will look like a good deal.
26 February 2009
at 2:03 p.m.
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uconnjay (Anonymous) says…
To Pywacket — I agree with a lot of what you have to say, but in Kansas, aren't medical malpractice jury awards drastically capped, especially for “pain and suffering”? To XD40 — You're simply wrong about coverage “mandates” being the reason for medical insurance costs going up. Overhead costs (mostly trying to figure out ways not to pay insurance claims), marketing and political lobbying, ornate corporate facilities, and executive salaries cost far more than what Kate's Law would, even in the short run.
27 February 2009
at 9:15 a.m.
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geniusmannumber1 (Anonymous) says…
uconnjay—
You're pretty much exactly right. And for someone who claims to have issues with insurance companies, pywacket sure buys right in to the insurance company created fiction that malpractice suits have anything to do whatsoever with healthcare costs. Heck, the increasing price of malpractice insurance doesn't even slightly correlate with malpractice suits, let alone health insurance as a whole.
27 February 2009
at 2:51 p.m.
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gigiparis (Anonymous) says…
Thank you for your very eloquent comments, Uconnjay! As you know, Max was diagnosed with autism about a year ago. Max's developmental pediatrician wrote on his diagnosis that Applied Behavior Analysis therapy was highly recommended for Max. However, our insurance doesn't cover this treatment. Kate's Law would help us to get the necessary treatment for our little guy.
27 February 2009
at 5:51 p.m.
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storm (Anonymous) says…
WOW, one out of 150 children will have Autism. Have they broadend the symptoms for this disorder? That's alot of children. Maybe we can lower the statistics by not bouncing sound waves on fetus's heads in-utero (sonograms) and also precisely defining sysmptoms of autism.