Ohio Senate to review mandate for insurance to cover autism

COLUMBUS (AP) — The Ohio House’s decision to require insurance companies to cover autism treatment gave advocates a long-awaited victory, but their aims may be put on hold or squelched in the more skeptical Senate.

The influential small-business lobby has been informing senators of its concerns that the autism requirement will increase health-insurance costs at a time when businesses are already straining under the economic meltdown.

The Ohio House, controlled by Democrats, took a separate bill addressing autism coverage and rolled it into the two-year budget plan it approved two weeks ago, hoping the move would make it harder to oppose the issue and would speed its movement. Advocates have made the policy a priority since 2002, and they received a boost when a 2005 study commissioned by the Legislature recommended the coverage mandate.

State Sen. John Carey, a Wellston Republican who chairs the Finance Committee, said he is considering taking the autism requirement out of the budget so it can be reviewed more carefully by the Republican-controlled Senate.

The business lobby and some lawmakers believe the additional costs incurred by having to cover autism services will cause some businesses to drop insurance coverage altogether.

About one in every 150 children is diagnosed with autism, a complex developmental disability of varying degrees that impairs a person’s ability to communicate and interact with others. It costs on average $22,500 a year to treat a child with autism with speech, behavioral, psychological and other therapies, said Barbara Yavorcik, executive director of the Autism Society of Ohio.