MN Autism Coverage HF181 advances to HHS Finance Committee – Still Discriminatory Language

The language of
this legislation is still discriminatory and will create double standard and
here is how;

Example – Two
Children with Autism both named Michael Smith.

Michael Smith A
has Private Insurance, middle/high income family most likely Caucasian. 

1.  He gets
   unlimited hours of Autism therapy including ABA, Floor-time, etc.
2.  His Doctor
   including the owner of the ABA Autism Center can prescribe the hours, the
   intensity, the length of therapy and the duration, it can range from 2 hours a
   week to 40 hours or more a week.
3.  He can get
   this therapy from age two years old or even younger to whenever as MEDICALLY necessary, even after age 18
   or 21 and older – there is no age limit in this bill for ABA therapy.
4. He does not have any paperwork from any state agency looking, denying, questioning, or even thinking about it. The sky is not even the limit for this kid.

Michael Smith B
has Medicaid/Medical Assistance – low-income family and most likely Minority.

1.   He gets
limited hours decided by Minnesota Dept of Human Services (DHS) medical
personnel and bureaucrats. (HSAC did not have the guts to write a concrete language that was fair and based on current actual evidence not parent anecdotal and cost effective. One would have thought research should drive policy, not in Minnesota).

2.   He might get
early intervention, if older most likely not (keep in mind low income and
minority kids get diagnosed late to begin with. So, his start time is late
already – but who cares – really).

3.   His overall
therapy is only medically necessary if and when DHS says
it is. And, we all know how quickly – sorry meant slow they move. More like
crawling is their pace.

4.   Bottom line,
at best this kid gets couple of years, maybe 3 years of late, limited and less than 20 hours a week, regulated and
less quality of therapy, and crappy coverage. (High quality ABA autism providers will not want such heavy oversight when they can have the easy no fuss kid and who can blame them).

What provider in
their right mind is going to take The MA/Medicaid child who has more rules and
regulations than a boxing match between Tyson/Hollyfield, with all kinds of ears coming of and all. The rules, regulations, denials and paperwork might be as much as Dodd/Frank Act. This will happen for few years. Meanwhile, we (minorities and low income autism families) will accumulate disparity, health inequity and more barriers to equal health
care. 

Then, some of the
same legislators and state agency leaders that passed this law/policy will have
the audacity to come to our communities and tell us “they care, they
understand and THEY want to decrease health disparity), but – wait for it….we
must vote for them again and like them on FB. And ask us to be really really really nice because this time things will change and we should see some light at the end of our health disparity tunnel. They will even learn couple of Somali words and other trivial gestures to make us feel welcomed. 

And, they will
flash their FEEL GOOD legislations and NAACP memberships, Sort of like the
disparity decreasing legislations (HF310 and SF246) now going through MN house/senate.
Ironically many of the same legislators who are voting for the autism disparity
creating legislation also co-authored these feel good & meaningless
policies that are not even a bandage for a health disparity wound that needs an antibiotic or
even stitches. 

I kid you not.
Read it and weep – some of you might regret your vote in 2012.

So, what happens
now?

1. Well, we
certainly don’t have nor can we afford the lobbyists and special interest
providers that are influencing these legislators at the Capitol. 

2. Our
voices/ideas are not sought or important enough when writing these policies.

3. We can start learning and do what WA and FL states did for the double standard and different sets of autism benefits between the haves and have-nots. 

4. Plus,
when there is a will – there is a way. We have the ability and the power to vote,
which is how they got there in the first place and became the hot shot committee chairs,
administrators, LA’s so on and so forth. 

Therefore, we
must know our votes only matter, if we demand it to matter and use it like a
bargaining chip. In other words, we elect them to office (as little as couple
of hundred votes) and they address our important issues that matter to us,
enhance our life, better our children’s health, education and improve our
overall everything. We should not settle their usual give us a fish every other
day just to survive. We must demand and expect to learn how to fish and be part
of the process and of the system.

Insanity is
voting for the same people and somehow expecting different policies. It has not
happened for so many other minorities in this country that have been here a lot
longer. We cannot and should not think it will happen for us without really
re-thinking and having better strategies. 

The only way is
with our voices, our votes and our insistence on fairness and equality from
every corner, river, valley and mountain. 

Think of it this
way; In a marathon race during Olympics – all of the athletes start at the same
lane and the fastest and best wins the race. May the best man/woman win –
right.