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HEAL Legislative Action Alert
HEAL would like to pass along the message below from the Autism Society of Jacksonville. This bill, HB1291, will provide insurance coverage for the treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders. As you know, the financial costs can be overwhelming. Please take the time to sign the online petition, and contact your Florida legislator.
Sign Our Petition
We now have an online petition you can sign! Click here to read and sign the petition!
The petition is growing in support, but we have a way to go. It is imperative that you make calls to your district house representative and state senator. In our area, those who live in Senator King's district and House Representative Bean's district, it is vital that you call or go by their office. They are not on board and need to be educated. Senator King is in district 8, East Jacksonville, Beaches, East St Johns County, Ponte Vedra all the way down to east Flagler.
Representative Bean, district 12, is Nassau, Baker, Union Bradford and NE Duval (beaches).
You can find out right here which district you are in and who your house rep and senator is.
Some important tips for contacting your legislator:
- Keep it focused.
- Be polite and make your points factual.
- Distinguish the difference between other illnesses and autism. There is early detection and intervention coverage for breast cancer, etc., but no coverage for autism treatments.
- What good is an early diagnosis, when the appropriate interventions for autism are out of reach financially for the majority of Florida families?
- Individuals who have other illnesses usually don't end up in long-term residential settings for the rest of their adult lives costing the state thousands upon thousands of dollars. And that is probably a conservative figure.
- Early detection and intervention, meaning science-based and proven treatments provide better outcomes for individuals with autism so that they can be productive US citizens.
- The Florida school systems are ill-equipped to provide ABA therapy and they do not provide as well as go out of their way not to provide such therapies, even when outside evaluations recommend it as the early intensive treatment needed.
- Autism is not just a psychiatric disorder, it is neurological disorder, with other medical problems associated with it, such as immune dysfunctional, gastrointestinal problems, seizures, gross and fine motor problems, sensory dysfunctions, etc. You can add whatever else you need to here.
- Autism is not just a democratic issue, nor is it the result of an epidemic outbreak of bad genes. No single gene causing autism has been identified. It affects all people. It does not distinguish from income bracket, race, religion, party affiliation, social status, etc. None of these factors make one immune from having autism affect a family member.
Here is a message with more helpful information from another individual who asks us to please contact our legislators:
The most effective way to contact them is to send a postal letter and include a picture of your loved one affected by Autism and related disabilities. You may also email them, but include your constituent address. Depending on the volume of emails it may take a while for them to see yours. Here are sample letters you may view. Please do not copy them. Personalize them to be more successful. Your legislator must be able to relate to your needs
Your letter can be as simple as "I wanted you to know how important HB1291 is for our children. Please review the bill and I hope you find a place in your heart to co-sponsor the Bill. Many people in your community greatly support the bill and we hope that you can as well."
Keep the letters short and pleasant. Ask them to be supportive by co-sponsoring the bill. Do not demand or threaten. We are going against a formidable opponent (insurance companies). Besides being the right thing for the children, in these economic times it will shift cost of major services from the public school system and place the onus on Health Insurance. In the states where this has been implemented it has either not raised premium at the low end to raising them to an estimated $50 per year at the very high end, with much coverage. And so far there are no reports that anyone was dropped from their coverage.
It is important that each legislator in each district is approached by his or her constituent. It is just as important that you ask them to co-sponsor. Also, ask your family and friends throughout the state of Florida to contact their district legislators on your behalf.
These bills are beautifully written for the betterment of our loved ones with Autism spectrum disorder, in an effort to have them reach their full potential. We need support from all our legislators to get these bills passed.
If your legislator's name is listed below as a sponsor or co-sponsor, please write them and call them to thank them. This is extremely important. In fact everyone can thank these legislators.
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Thank Representatives:
Representatives Porth; Ari.Porth@myfloridahouse.gov
Representatives Brandenburg; mary.brandenburg@myfloridahouse.gov
Representatives Flores; anitere.flores@myfloridahouse.gov
Representatives Gibbons; joe.gibbons@myfloridahouse.gov
Representatives Jenne; evan.jenne@myfloridahouse.gov
Representatives Kiar; martin.kiar@myfloridahouse.gov
Representatives Nehr; peter.nehr@myfloridahouse.gov
Representatives Robaina; julio.robaina@myfloridahouse.gov
Thank Senator Geller; geller.steven.web@flsenate.gov
GENERAL BILL by Porth
Autism Spectrum Disorder: Includes autism spectrum disorder within training requirements for personnel of child care facilities; requires health insurance plans to provide coverage for screening, diagnosis, intervention, & treatment of autism spectrum disorder in children; requires treatment plan; prohibits insurers from denying or refusing coverage or refusing to renew or reissue or terminate coverage based on diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder; provides coverage limitations; provides treatment plan requirements; limits frequency of requests for updating treatment plan; provides maximum benefits limitation; requires public institutions of higher education to incorporate into educator certificate course curricula recommendations of Commissioner of Education relating to autism awareness & teaching students who have autism spectrum disorder; requires commissioner to develop recommendations for instruction & course curricula relating to autism spectrum disorder & requires commissioner to submit such recommendations to SBE & BOG; requires DOH, in conjunction with DOE, DCFS, AHCA, & APD to establish statewide system of early autism spectrum disorder intervention services for infants & toddlers; requires DOH to establish Internet website for disseminating information.
Effective Date: January 1, 2009, and applies to health insurance policies or plans issued, renewed, entered into, or delivered on or after that date
Last Event: Filed on Friday, February 29, 2008 12:45 PM
Bill Text: Original Filed Version
S2654 GENERAL BILL by Geller (Compare H 1291) Autism Spectrum Disorder; Cites this act as the "Window of Opportunity Act." Requires health insurance plans to provide coverage for screening, diagnosis, intervention, and treatment of autism spectrum disorder in certain children Prohibits an insurer from denying or refusing coverage or refusing to renew or reissue or terminate coverage based on a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, etc. EFFECTIVE DATE: 01/01/2009. 02/29/08 SENATE Filed
Bill Text: PDF Version
Thank you for coming together as a community to support our children and children's future.
HEAL would like to thank Corinne Collins for putting together this email and all her hard work on this important legislative front. If you would like to be a volunteer on this effort and fax the petition to lawmakers on Monday, please email Corinne at admin@asagjax.org.
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