Autism bill passes Senate committee after large changes

May 10--An Alabama Senate committee Wednesday approved a bill that would require insurance coverage for autism, but only after a lengthy debate in which the chairman repeatedly attempted to amend the bill in what supporters said was an attempt to delay or prevent its passage.

Most of the amendments offered by Senate Finance and Taxation Committee chairman Trip Pittman, R-Montrose, were defeated, but Pittman did manage to amend the bill to limit coverage to large businesses and cap therapies to age 16. Pittman framed his strategy largely in terms of trying to protect public money and expenses, and noted that the state's largest insurer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, had made an offer to cover autism therapries in exchange for an age cap and limiting the age requirement.

"One of the great ironies of this is we want to mandate an insurance company to do something they will do on their own," he said. "But it's the same company. "I think the trust issue a little misguided."

To supporters, though, Pittman's goal seemed to be an attempt to send the legislation back to the Alabama House of Representatives and allow it to die in a conference committee. Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, whose daughter is on the autism spectrum, at one point referred to lobbyists and saluted "all the people in the hallway"who he claimed -- over Pittman's denials -- drafted the amendments.

"I've been here long enough to know that (running out the clock) is a strategy, and I see it in play," said Sen. Bill Holtzclaw, R-Madison.

Alabama is one of a handful of states that does not mandate coverage for autism therapies, which can cost up $120 an hour, and many families pay for the therapies out of pocket. Local school systems also shoulder a greater burden of the costs.

Patterson's legislation initially would have required insurers to cover up to $40,000 a year for autism therapies for children up to age 9; $30,000 for those aged 10 to 13; $20,000 for those aged 14 to 18 and $10,000 for those 19 and older. Insurers would have been allowed to suspend the plans if they demonstrate offering the coverage will raise premiums one percent.

The Alabama House of Representatives voted 100 to 0 last month for the bill. But the legislation has stalled in the Senate, and supporters have had to threaten filibusters to push bill forward.

Autism advocates organized in support of the legislation. Supporters, wearing red T-shirts with saying "Autism matters" on the front and the names of individual children on the back, flooded the small Senate committee room Wednesday. but both the Business Council of Alabama and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, the state's dominant insurer, pushed back against it, arguing it would raise costs for businesses. BCBS floated a proposal Tuesday to cover the therapies starting in January, though only for those 16 and younger, if the mandate was dropped.

That proposal brought criticism from a group of Democratic and Republican senators who have threatened to slow the chamber's business down if the bill did not come out for a vote. Sen. Dick Brewbaker, R-Pike Road, warned that he would debate concurrence on the General Fund budget "until the cows come home" if the bill did not pass.

The senators also accused leadership of pursuing "backroom deals" to kill the legislation, which Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston, denied Tuesday night.

"There's been conversations about what are the implications if this passes, what's going to happen," Marsh said. "All that kind of talk is going on. But there's no deals cut. I can't tell you, standing here right now, how that thing is going to end up at the end of the day."

There are five days left in the current legislative session. If the bill passes the Senate, it must go back to the House for concurrence or a conference committee.

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