February 27, 2011

This op/ed originally appeared in the Richmond Times Dispatch

While polio may have been the children’s epidemic of the last century, autism appears to be the scourge of the early part of the twenty-first century. In the United States and here in Virginia, almost one in every 70 boys and one in every 110 girls is afflicted by the disorder. Like other epidemics, autism doesn’t care about race or socioeconomic status, all children are vulnerable. Moreover, while no one yet knows why, autism is growing at the shocking rate of 10 to 17 per cent per year. The national Autism Society estimates that the cost of caring for a child with autism over a lifetime ranges from $3.5 million to $5 million and that our country faces close to $90 billion in annual costs for autism.

The value to treating this disorder is great, not just for those afflicted or their families and friends, but for all Virginians. Without intervention, many of these children will not grow up to be productive, constructive citizens, able to raise families, achieve gainful employment and give back to society. Instead, they will be a burden on all of us. They will need government services for their very survival, accommodations to care for them because they will not have the ability to care for themselves.

However, unlike in epidemics of time past, we can address autism with a promising success rate. Children who receive Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention make marked progress. Normal functioning is achieved by 50% of those children who are treated and another 40% will have improved functioning, not only increasing their quality of life, but reducing their need for resources. More importantly, these statistics demonstrate that a very significant portion of these children will, after treatment, be able to become productive citizens, rather than a burden.

However, the success of treatment depends on early intervention. No only do we need to ensure that children are screened for autism at a young age, they then need to receive rigorous services to address the issues that accompany the disorder. ABA therapy requires many hours of intensive treatment each and every week. A study in 1987 demonstrated that, with forty hours of treatment a week, significant gains were shown. Unfortunately, those children who only received ten hours a week of therapy did not show the marked improvement. This kind of time-consuming intensive therapy is expensive, sometimes incurring costs of five to six figures in a single year.

For the past eleven years, parents of children with autism have come to the General Assembly asking for assistance. They were not asking for a hand-out or any kind of government giveaway, they were simply requesting that insurance companies be required to cover autism therapy. This year, after more than a decade of grassroots activism, advocacy by autism professionals and discussions among legislative colleagues, legislation passed. The bill limits care from ages two to six, ensuring the early intervention that is so critical for significant progress. It caps the annual insurance benefit to $35,000 for ABA therapy. Moreover, it includes an opt out provision should premiums increase by more than 1% and excludes businesses with fewer than fifty employees. The fiscal impact statement done by the General Assembly anticipates this to cost less than $1.00 per month and less than $10.00 a year. Surely, this is a very small cost for a potentially very large gain.

I want to commend my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who supported this bill. More importantly, I believe this shows that bipartisanship can occur, that Democrats and Republicans can work together to improve the lives of Virginians. Frankly, with legislators from both parties collaborating on this, we achieved compromise legislation that will help meet the needs of families with autism but still caps costs and protects businesses.

The bill now awaits the signature of the governor. Unfortunately, the governor has not committed to sign this landmark bipartisan legislation. He has said he is considering and studying it. While I certainly commend him for reviewing bills carefully and ensuring that legislation is accurate and does what it was meant to do, I would certainly hope he is not considering opposing this proposal.

This bill not only helps children with autism, their families and friends, but will make a significant, long term improvement in the Commonwealth. With autistic children receiving the treatment they so desperately need, their lives will improve and they will have a much increased opportunity to grow up, raise families, hold down jobs, and pay their fair share. They will no longer risk being burdens of the state or bankrupting their families. Instead they will be productive, constructive Virginians, which will make a difference for all of us. With that in mind, I simply say, “Governor McDonnell, please, for all of us, sign the bill!”