Wisconsin State Autism SCAM

It looks like 2/3rds of Wisconsin children won't be covered. Why? Where is the MSM on this? A good read and call to action for AUTISM for all Wisconsin Children not just the children of state workers! Link to Representative Petersen

Wisconsin Senate Bill 3 - the Autism Insurance Mandate

State Representative Kevin Petersen's E-Newsletter - February 13, 2009
On Monday, February 9th, I testified against Senate Bill 3, the Autism Insurance Mandate. I testified because I couldn’t in good faith watch a bill pass which promises hope to so many families, while in reality covers few.

After you read the testimony below, it’s time for a call to action. We need to stand up as Wisconsinites, and do what’s right. If the Autism Insurance Mandate passes in its current form, over $10 million dollars per year of taxpayer money will be spent on additional insurance premiums to ensure kids of state government employees (including legislators) are 100% covered for autism services. While at the same time 100% of state legislators’ kids are covered, 2/3’s of the rest of the states’ children remain uncovered by such mandate.

Rather than spending an additional $10 million tax dollars on state and local government employees’ healthcare premiums, we can spend less than $6 million dollars fully funding the autism waiver program to ensure 100% of the states’ autistic children receive the care they so desperately need.

Tell your legislators not to spend money which gives them a benefit not accorded to you. Tell them 100% of the autistic children of this state need to be covered.

To start a call to action, click here and send me your name and address along with a message on this issue. If I see you are not from my district, I will ensure it is forwarded to both your Representative and Senator.

Then, please forward this edition of Petersen’s E-Press to all your friends and family members around Wisconsin. Ask them to also contact my office.

Following is the exact testimony I gave to the Senate Committee on Public Health, Senior Issues, Long-Term Care, and Job Creation:

Thank-you Chairman Carpenter and other members of the Senate Committee on Public Health, Senior Issues, Long-Term Care, and Job Creation for hearing my testimony today on Senate Bill 3 – The Autism Insurance Mandate.

The Lord has blessed my wife and myself with two beautiful daughters sitting with me today – Nicole age 11 and Kaylee age 9. Both daughters diagnosed autistic pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD – NOS).

Our lives are just like the lives of all the other families at this hearing and throughout the state of Wisconsin with autistic children. It is a daily roller coaster of challenges and emotions.

As a legislator with autistic children I am able to both relate with the autism challenges and emotions as well as the legislative bureaucracy involved with this bill. What has to be remembered is when we vote on the floor, we don’t vote on emotions, press releases, or news media hype, we vote on the words as they are stated in the bill. For it is the words printed in the actual bill that become law.

It is for that reason I find Senate Bill 3 – the Autism Insurance Mandate - has three major flaws when addressing the needs of autistic children and their families.

First, read the analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau for the Autism Insurance Mandate bill, Sentence one: “This bill requires health insurance policies and self-insured governmental and school district health plans to cover the cost of treatment for an insured for autism …”

Noticeably exempt from those words are “self insured private business.” Nearly 50% of all Wisconsin residents get their insurance through their employers who self-fund their health insurance plans. These plans are regulated by federal law (Employee Retirement Income Security Act [ERISA]) and are exempt from all state mandates.

Approximately 20% of Wisconsin residents are in government programs, like Medicare, which are also exempt from state mandates. Furthermore, the bill can only apply to Wisconsin employers, so if you live in Hudson, Prairie du Chien, or Hurley and cross the border to work at a job in Minnesota, Iowa, or Michigan, your autistic child would not be covered by the mandate either.

In a memo to my office dated January 13, 2009, from the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, these numbers are confirmed. The memo states: “The Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) estimates that approximately 29% of Wisconsin’s population has health insurance coverage to which the state insurance coverage mandates directly apply.”

Even Governor Doyle’s press release dated February 3, 2009 confirms this fact. The last sentence in the second to last paragraph states: “By passing this bill, the current waiting list for autism treatment can be cut by one-third, providing more kids access to the services they deserve sooner.”

In other words, less than one in three autistic children in Wisconsin would get their intensive in home therapy paid for by insurance under the Senate’s autism insurance mandate.

Secondly, per the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau’s estimate attached to this bill: “This bill requires all health insurance plans offered by the Group Insurance Board (GIB) under Chapter 40 of the Wisconsin State Statues to provide coverage for Autism Syndrome Disorder (ASD) which includes Autism, Asperger’s syndrome and Pervasive Development Disorder not otherwise specified.”

According to the Government Insurance Board’s consulting actuary, the estimated cost of insurance premiums for this bill would range from $7.4 million to $8.7 million dollars annually for state employees. Additionally, the annual cost for plans offered to local government employees would range from $1.4 million to $1.6 million.

I want you and everyone in this room and in the State of Wisconsin to realize that if legislators vote “yes” for the Autism Insurance Mandate, they are voting to spend over $10 million dollars per year of taxpayer money to ensure kids of government employee’s including themselves are 100% covered for autism services while leaving 2/3 of the state’s population uncovered by such mandate.

Rather than spending an additional $10 million tax dollars on state employee and local government healthcare premiums to cover only 1/3 of the state’s autistic children, we can spend less than $6 million dollars fully funding the autism waiver program to eliminate the waiting list completely. Many of you are aware that last session, Representative Newcomer (another parent of an autistic child) and I brought just such a proposal forward. We will be bringing this proposal forward again this session.

Thirdly, there is no funding mechanism guarantee in Senate Bill 3 - the Autism Insurance Mandate - that would ensure the 2/3’s of the children not covered would have access to state assistance.

Under 2007 Wisconsin Act 20 (the 2007-09 biennial budget act) approximately $83 million dollars is budgeted to support autism treatment services. Of that $83 million, $34 million is Wisconsin General Purpose Revenue and $49 million is Federal matching funds.

We can not forget that in 2003, Governor Doyle’s first budget proposed to eliminate state funds for intensive in-home care for autism. There are no safe guards in this bill which would keep him or other legislators from raiding or eliminating the state’s current financial commitment to autism in the next biennial budget. Because of the Autism Insurance Mandate’s exclusion of 2/3 of Wisconsin’s autistic children, a decrease in funding could effectively increase the state’s waiting list for the autism waiver program.

I find it unfathomable that legislators under the Capitol dome in Madison - both the Senate and the Assembly - would prey on the emotions of families like mine throughout the state with autism, and give them false hope that an insurance mandate only covering 29% of the autistic kids in this state is satisfactory.

There’s a big difference between a political answer and a real solution. The last thing autistic children and their families need are 1/3 measures. The parents of autistic children have told us what their children need. Now, let’s work together to ensure that 100% of autistic children receive the service they so vitally require.

Respectfully;
Kevin

If you know anyone who would enjoy receiving updates on state issues, please have them contact me at Rep.Petersen@legis.wisconsin.gov to subscribe.