Autism insurance bill tentatively passes Senate

The Senate voted 17-11 Wednesday to give third and final consideration to a bill that would make in-home behavioral therapy for autistic children a covered procedure by state medical insurance.

The final vote on SB43 could come as early as Thursday. The outcome is too close to call, given that at least five senators who voted in favor of the measure did so on condition that their concerns be addressed in the meantime.

Floor debate on the bill over the bill mirrored in tone, length and vote the sentiments of lawmakers who reviewed the bill a week ago. The bill, nicknamed "Clays Law" after 8-year-old Clay Whiffen, whose parents say has fully recovered from severe autistic behavior through the therapy described in the proposal,

Senators voting against the measure said the therapy is apparently effective and the parents of the children who would benefit are certainly worthy of respect for dealing with the extreme disruptions associated with autistic behavior and for their situation.

However, several lawmakers called the proposal a bad idea rolled into a worse idea — a mandate to insurers. With the state trying to decide on where to make severe budget cuts, its main medical insurance plan simply can't tolerate the added $1.9 million legislative fiscal analysts estimate would be required to underwrite the benefit.

Sen. Allen Christensen, R-North Ogden, voted against the measure as well as the initial call by sponsor Sen. Howard Stephensen, R-Draper, to allow for public testimony on the floor, saying that lawmakers were "being set up to make the debate as emotional as possible."

"I'm not unsympathetic, and we'd all like to think they're going to turn out like Clay," Christensen said. "People think I'm the Grinch that beat up autism, but I cannot support another insurance mandate that goes exactly opposite of where we need it with autism on one end and we let others go bare on the other."

Stephenson countered that all insurance is mandate-ridden, and that young families are being forced to pay for the expensive end-of-life therapies and services for his generation of Utahns that they are required under the plan to help underwrite with their premiums.

The current system is "draconian" and amounts "to taxation without representation," Stephenson said, noting that health care system reform efforts under way in Utah might one day give consumers the power to actually choose their insurance plan, not have it chosen for them.

"But until employees or patients are restored as the consumer, this is the best option — give young families what they would chose if they could choose."

E-MAIL: jthalman@desnews.com