Kansas parents fight for autism insurance

From KSNT-TV:

According to the Kansas coalition for Autism Legislation, about five thousand children across the state suffer from the disease. Advocates for the bill say treatment for these children must be covered.

Eight-year-old Bryce Kalas (pictured) is telling his father that he's hungry, but the words aren't coming out of his mouth.

”I want lunch,” a computerized voice said.

”It’s his only way to talk to us, to be able to tell us if he's hurt or if there is something he needs,” Bryce’s mother, Marie Kalas, said.

Bryce is autistic and this computer is his main connection to the outside world, but this machine alone costs 3800 hundred dollars, and like all other autism treatments, it is not covered by insurance.

”Some treatment we just didn't do because we didn't have any money to do it,” Bryce’s father, Ed Kalas, said.

Specialists have told Marie Kalas that her son will not progress past the level of a three-year-old. She says the outcome could have been different if treatments were covered.

”What if he had received some of this care. What if he had received therapy at a young age,” Kalas said.

Mike Wasmer's daughter Kate is also autistic. He says soon after she was diagnosed, they began spending 36 thousand dollars a year on treatment, and now Kate is a straight A student in the fourth grade.

”Because of the intervention we were able to provide her, she is excelling,” Wasmer said.

Wasmer says he wants every family to have that opportunity. He founded the Kansas coalition for Autism Legislation and helped to draw up the state's autism insurance bill, which he named after his daughter.

”This is a medical diagnosis and there is a medical treatment for it,” Wasmer said.

Kate's law was introduced in the senate in January. If passed, the bill would provide coverage for diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorder up to age 21. But insurance companies oppose the bill.

In a statement to 27 news, a representative from Blue cross Blue shield of Kansas said while this measure "is advantageous to some, it raises the premium costs for others, and in some cases, makes insurance
unaffordable."

But Wasmer says spending money on treatment will cut costs down the road.

”If they don't receive treatment, you're looking at 4.2 million dollars over the lifespan of that child in not only special education costs k through 12, adult disability services, lost wages, these aren’t going to be productive citizens, these aren’t going to be taxpayers,” Wasmer said.

Wasmer says he'll continue to fight until Kansas joins the nine other states that have already passed autism insurance bills.