Ark Gov signs autism insurance coverage bill into law

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) -- Gov. Mike Beebe will sign into law a bill requiring insurance companies to cover autism diagnosis and treatment.

There is new support for autistic children in Arkansas. Tuesday, Governor Mike Beebe signed an autism bill into law. It requires most health insurance companies to cover autism diagnoses and treatment for children under 18.

It's a signature with the power to lift a financial weight. Ten-year-old Briar Miller with his mom Dayna were in the center of it all. "I'm glad the law passed we've been trying to pass it for two years," says Briar Miller.

Most major health insurance companies can no longer deny Arkansas families coverage for treatment for children with autism. "I just truly believe that children in Arkansas deserve the same right as children across the United States especially when it was a research proven approach," says Dayna Miller.

Miller estimates she borrowed $100,000 to pay for applied behavior analysis. It's treatment using positive reinforcement recommended by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Miller says for Briar it works. " He went from a nonverbal child, he's in the fifth grade getting straight A's although he brought home a B last week that's we're going to get up," says Miller.

The CDC estimates that 1 in 110 children are diagnosed with autism and that ABA treatment ranges anywhere from 30 to 60 thousand dollars a year.
Veronica Tess Myers says in 1996, when doctors diagnosed her son Alexander with severe to moderate autism.

You definitely feel alone, there's a lot of tears being cried there's a lot of frustration there's a lot of sitting alone trying to figure out what the next step is going to be to help you child to succeed," says Myers.

They told her told her it was either ABA or a group home for life. "And that's the part that breaks my heart that so many families want to help their child and couldn't get therapy," says Miller.

Danya Miller says she was working at a factory when Briar was born. She went back to school and became a speech pathologist to help him and other children with autism. Arkansasautism.org ­estimates that one in 93 boys and one in 345 girls in the state are autistic.

Arkansas House Committee approves autism insurance coverage bill

Associated Press - February 22, 2011 1:34 PM ET

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - A House panel has approved a proposal to require most health insurance companies to cover diagnosis and treatment of autism.

The House Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee gave its endorsement Tuesday morning to the bill sponsored by Democratic Rep. Uvalde Lindsey of Fayetteville.

Jonesboro native Dayna Miller says her family could have been spared the financial burden it faces today if the measure had been in force earlier. Miller's son Briar was diagnosed with autism when he was three years old, and Miller said she sold her house, took out more than a hundred thousand dollars in student loans and considered selling her own kidney to pay for an intensive therapy that research indicated could help him.

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