Brewbaker demands vote on autism insurance bill

May 02--A Pike Road senator Tuesday demanded a committee vote on a bill to mandate insurance coverage of autism therapies and warned he might slow down the process if it did not.

Republican Sen. Dick Brewbaker told the chamber he had read "outright crap" about the alleged costs of the legislation, and criticized Senate Finance and Taxation General Fund chair Trip Pittman, R-Montrose, for not holding a vote this week.

"There are more people like me who will get increasingly uncooperative if this bill continues to be blocked," Brewbaker said. "I would urge leadership to get the bill in front of a committee this week. We can do better than this."

Alabama is one of a handful of states that does not mandate insurers to cover autism therapies, which can cost up to $120 an hour. Parents of children with autism in Alabama pay for those therapies out of pocket. The state Department of Education is also picking up an ever-larger cost of the therapies.

The House of Representatives on April 20 overwhelmingly approved a bill sponsored by Rep. Jim Patterson, R-Meridianville, that would require coverage of the therapies, with some conditions. The bill provides a sliding scale of inflation-adjusted caps on coverage. For children 9 years and younger, the amount would be $40,000 a year; for those 10 to 13, $30,000 a year; 14 to 18, $20,000 a year and age 19 and older, $10,000 a year.

Patterson's bill passed 100 to 0, but lingered in the Senate for a week before getting assigned to Pittman's committee. Pittman said Tuesday he did not expect a decision on a committee vote until next week.

"We are trying to assess the cost of it and what those numbers are," said Pittman, who described himself as "no friend of the insurance industry." "Anyone familiar with Alabama government understands the challenges we face in the General Fund budget and in paying for the services we provide."

Time is working against the legislation. There are just eight days left in the Regular Session, and delayed votes could doom the legislation.

The Legislative Fiscal Office does not have an estimate on the cost of the bill. But on the floor, Brewbaker cited statistics from the state of Missouri -- which has 5.9 million people, compared to Alabama's 4.8 million -- showing that autism therapies there cost only $11.3 million, less than three-tenths of a percent of the total claims filed that year. Patterson's bill includes a provision that allows insurance companies to suspend the benefits if they can show it will raise the costs of all premiums 1 percent.

The senator wants a vote on the bill this week and warned that if the legislation continued to stall, it would lead to filibusters, including on the state's budgets.

"We need to vote on this bill," Brewbaker said Tuesday afternoon after stepping out of the chamber. "If we get beat, I'm not going to filibuster. But it deserves to be voted on, not buried procedurally."

Sen. Bill Holtzclaw, R-Madison and Senate Minority Leader Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery, joined Brewbaker in calling for passage of the bill. Brewbaker said later on Tuesday he had gotten 26 of the chamber's 35 senators to a sign a petition demanding a vote.

"The purpose of government is not to rally around and protect the strong," he said in the chamber. "We need to pass this autism coverage bill."

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