Support Needed for Insurance Bill - Dylan's Law

Dear Families in Hawaii,

We write today to bring awareness, and ask for your support when autism legislation is introduced this legislative session. Majority of the families we know are privately funding their child’s ABA programs and biomedical treatment plans with little or no assistance from the schools, Medicaid, or their insurance company.

A child with autism does not outgrow it. However, with intensive intervention, some have recovered completely. Some have recovered to the point of leading a productive life. Intensive intervention gives our children and their families hope, and a brighter future.

The 2008 Hawaii Legislative Session will begin in a couple of weeks and bill introductions must be done in the next 2 weeks. We will be introducing a bill mandating health insurance coverage for autism diagnosis and treatment (including ABA, speech, ot, biomed, and anything else that is determined to be "medically necessary").

South Carolina, Texas, and Indiana have already passed similar bills and other states will be introducing their own bills.

See http://scautisminsurancebill.blogspot.com

for information on the SC bill and how they got it passed!

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Tell your Representatives and Senators that insurance coverage for autism treatment is greatly needed. Many of them still do now know what autism is, nor do they know what treatments are needed. They need YOU to tell them! The South Carolina bill passed because the families got involved and heavily lobbied for it. Go to the following links:

If the link does not show; hightlight, copy and paste the link in URL section of your web browser, and it will take you to that location.

Home Page
www.capitol.hawaii.gov

House of Representatives
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/site1/house/house.asp

House of Representatives - Committees
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/site1/house/comm/comm.asp

House of Representatives - Links
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/site1/links/links.asp

House of Senate
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/site1/senate/members/members.asp

House of Senate - Committees
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/site1/senate/comm/comm.asp

House of Senate - Daily Journal
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/site1/senate/DailyJournal.asp

Our goal is to have at least 3 or 4 constituents for each Representative/Senator. We need to hear from you!! Please email me at flute866@gmail.com with your contact info (name, street address, phone number, ) so that we may keep a list of people who are willing to help with this cause. This will also help us know which Rep/Sen's have constituents who can contact them and which ones do not.

We can only make this happen if we work together!!!!

Mahalo!!!!
Kalma Wong
Deborah Tasato-Kodama