subject: Bump In The Road For Autism Health Insurance Coverage [print this page] The governor of New York state, David Paterson, has two months left in his term. His truncated tenure in office has been a strange ride, starting with being promoted to the seat in the aftermath of the Eliot Spitzer scandal two years ago.
As a Democrat and a lame duck, one may expect that he would promote his personal views--political future forgotten. However, he recently decided to veto a bill passed by the majority Democratic state legislature. Assemblyman Joseph Morelle and State Sen. Neil Breslin sponsored it.
According to its supporters, the bill is intended to require coverage of treatments and therapies for those on the autism spectrum. Health insurance plans regulated by the state of New York (which is effectively all of them) would be mandated to cover "evidence-based, peer-reviewed, and clinically-proven" treatments. Most of these treatments see their greatest effectiveness in children, so young patients' health insurance would be most likely to be effective.
Paterson recently stated that he has lots of sympathy towards the cause. Unfortunately, in his current role as a public servant, he cannot ignore the budget concerns involved. His state is already on the precipice on a budget deficit, and the cost of the bill is predicted to be about $70 million that the state does not have.
In Paterson's view, he cannot sign any legislation that would create a law resulting in an unfunded mandate. The bill would increase the premiums the state and local governments would have to pay for their employees' health insurance plans. In addition, the Department of Insurance and Department of Health would be responsible for crafting and updating annual guidelines for health insurers to abide by. Once again, Paterson states that there is no room in the budget to establish those programs.
As expected, the bill's sponsors are dismayed by this turn of events. State Senator Craig Johnson is now pushing for the New York legislature to reconvene (although their session has ended) in order to override Paterson's veto. It remains to be seen if his desire will be fulfilled.
Bump In The Road For Autism Health Insurance Coverage
By: Yamileth Medina
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