States are making health insurers pay for autism-related services that should be handled by government safety-net programs, a think tank says.
At least 23 states mandate some amount of coverage for the treatment of autism, and the mandates vary widely, according to Victoria Bunce and J.P. Wieske, staffers at the Council for Affordable Health Insurance, Alexandria, Va., an organization that promotes a free-market approach to health insurance regulation.
In many cases, advocates for children with autism want to require health insurance to cover rehabilitation and behavioral modification services, such as speech therapy services and play therapy services, that appear to be educational rather than medical in nature, the CAHI staffers write.
