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The Best & Worst States To Live In If You Have A Child With Autism
A MyAutismTeam Member asked a question 💭

Autism isn't fun for our family and living in Georgia makes it worse so I'm still complaining and hoping to move out-of-state. The first link came out on 3/15/15 and looks at states based on whether they have an insurance mandate, ABA offered in ACA/Obamacare or ABA for Medicaid. That's a start but you've got to read the small print as there are a lot of exceptions to the insurance coverage.

http://www.autismhealthinsurance.org/the-best-w...

I came across the Easter Seals website which I'd… read more

posted April 20, 2015
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A MyAutismTeam Member

I know they JUST passed Ava's law in Georgia. (Covers to age 6) May want to look up the details and when they take affect. I know that was a long hard fought battle there. You can look up the details at http://www.legis.ga.gov (bill HB429).

In VA, the governor just signed into law raising the coverage mandate from age 6 to 10 years old. It's unlimited OT and speech and a little bit of ABA. (VA bill HB1940). Once you're 11 though there's zero coverage without a medicare waiver (which in VA has a very very long waiting list-like years).

We live near Maryland and our speech therapy office person says the insurance coverage is very good there but I'm not up on the details.

Keep trying. Look up your legislators and email/write them repeatedly. Find out when they are in session. Get your family/friends to write too. Hope this helps and good luck.

posted May 6, 2015
A MyAutismTeam Member

I also live in GA and feel your pain. I am not willing to take a gamble with my son's future and hope that things will get better. I personally spoke with Ava's mom and know about the struggles that she went through to even get the bill passed. What ending up passing was a compromise, it was not what she and others had originally had been fighting for. It is much better than nothing being in place for ABA coverage and will benefit some children. She had been battling with them for 7 years to get that far. I was told that just when she thought she was making advances with the Medicaid director to get ABA coverage, he left for another job.

Thanks for all of the links to the various articles, they are very helpful!

Good luck with finding somewhere that is a good fit for your daughter. I hope that you and your wife can move past this speed bump.

posted May 25, 2015
A MyAutismTeam Member

I have been following Ava's law for a couple of years but it's the worst insurance mandate in the country when coverage is dropped at age 7. It may go up to age 18 if it passes a state referendum in 2016 but I don't feel like gambling with my daughter's future. There are few ABA therapists in state because few could afford them so it will be a while before they are trained and the insurance companies start offering policies.

"We live near Maryland and our speech therapy office person says the insurance coverage is very good there but I'm not up on the details." Even West Virginia has an above average insurance mandate law but there were some problems implementing it.

"Keep trying. Look up your legislators and email/write them repeatedly. Find out when they are in session. Get your family/friends to write too. Hope this helps and good luck." There was a lot of pressure and the measure passed easily but it's so far behind most of the country. Most families dealing with autism here are told things are getting better but they don't know what's going on in other state. I'll leave it to the people who plan to stay in Georgia because I've had enough even though my wife just got a new job with a short commute. She is kind of hoping I'll fail to get a job out-of-state so there's some friction. She's a nurse and get a job faster than I can. We don't have family here so there's no real connection to Georgia.

posted May 7, 2015

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