Autism bill is weakened

Hopes are fading for help from the state for parents of autistic children, with legislators weakening a proposal that would require insurance companies to pay for treatments for the disorder.

Hours after proponents failed in a last-ditch effort to get a House version of the measure to the floor, the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee yesterday diluted a Senate version of the proposal.

The panel then sidetracked the measure, sending Senate Bill 1260 to a budget panel because it could drive up the cost of insurance for state employees.

Now before the Senate Finance Committee, which is expected to consider the legislation today, the proposed bill by Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel, R-Fauquier, would limit mandated coverage for autism to age 6. The bill originally called for insurance coverage to age 21. Vogel had recommended cutting it to 12.

During testimony in a hot and crowded committee room, Vogel said that to refuse insurance coverage for autism would ultimately shift the cost to taxpayers as parents turn to state-run programs for the care of their children.

"We pay for it now or we pay for it later," she said.

Earlier yesterday, about 40 parents and grandparents of autistic children rallied in front of the General Assembly Building to push for the legislation. Many held pictures of their autistic children.

Among them was Cassandra Oldham of Leesburg, who has two children with autism and could afford to take care of only one.

"I couldn't look at my kids and choose," she said. So she held yard sales, bake sales and other fundraisers so she could get treatment for both.

Advocates said providing insurance for treatment now will save the state lots of money in the future. Without treatment, the children might become wards of the state when they grow up, said Stuart Spielman, vice president of Autism Speaks. Special education provided by the public schools also costs money, he said.

About one in 150 children is autistic, Spielman said.

"How many folks need to go bankrupt to pay for the services?" asked Lori Ghiringhelli of Roanoke.

The business and insurance lobbies are battling the legislation, saying it will drive up costs and further cut into profits already erased by the steep recession. Among those opposing the bill: the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, the Virginia Retail Merchants Association and the National Federation of Independent Business.

A similar bill, House Bill 1588, by Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William, has been stopped in the House.

Marshall yesterday tried -- and failed -- to free his measure from a hostile House committee through a rare parliamentary maneuver that would have forced the full House to act on the proposal.

Last Tuesday, a House Commerce and Labor subcommittee had let the bill languish without recommending its approval or defeat.

"Silence is not an acceptable moral response," Marshall told delegates yesterday.

But the chairman of the subcommittee that had heard the bill, Del. R. Lee Ware Jr., R-Powhatan, objected to the characterization of silence. He said the panel heard arguments on the bill for about an hour. A motion was never made to kill or pass the bill.

"The process was comprehensive, and there was a deep sympathy expressed by members on both sides," Ware said.

Marshall's motion to revive the bill failed 32-63.

Contact Jeff E. Schapiro at (804) 649-6814 or .

Staff writers Olympia Meola and Tyler Whitley contributed to this report.