LEXINGTON, South Carolina (CNN) - Ryan Unumb just 7 years. It has roughly 100 words in his vocabulary, even if they are difficult to understand. He was educated pot. He likes to play with water. It follows the instructions, he asks for food, when it is hungry, and there are lots of kisses.
It is not there, where a 7-year, growth is expected to be, but for an autistic child severe, his parents are delighted with his progress.
Lorri and Dan Unumb attribute these achievements on the 40 hours of intensive therapy Ryan receives each week. Tears streaming down his face, Lorri, “she says know they are lucky they can afford it, the private sector, the team of therapists throughout the day in his home outside Columbia, South Carolina .
“I met many other mothers who have done the best they can, and I just wanted to say to them, ‘You know, one hour per week of therapy is to call your child will never be for “The best mother of three said.
“But I did not want to say what they need is 40 hours per week, therapy, as it can do nothing to buy them.”
You can not do anything, because most medical insurance generally have no cure for autism, and it is too expensive for many parents, in the pocket. Ryan’s therapy costs between $ 70000 and $ 80000 per year. That’s Lorri Unumb the entire salary.
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She and her husband are both lawyers, to Ryan’s autism was diagnosed five years ago, they sold their home, and reduced sacrificed to cover costs.
“It’s not like you and your insurance policy, you can see a certain exclusion,” said Lorri Unumb the first days after Ryan’s diagnosis. “We submitted invoices, and we wish you denials even said that” … Experiment refused “or” by a supplier of non-licence … Denied. “Or sometimes insurance companies say:” Education is therapeutic in nature, and non-medical … denied.
When a lawyer and law professor, Unumb decided to do something to help insurance companies force in South Carolina for autism.
She wrote a bill, recruited other parents, to help their entry national legislators, and two years later, the bill passed. Known as Ryan’s Bill, is it that Ryan’s Law in July.
Ryan’s Law mandates, insurance companies offer up to $ 50000 per year for the behavioral until the age of 16. It also prohibits refusing to other insurers, medical care for children because of their autism. That does not apply, however, to persons or businesses that are insured by themselves, as the Unumbs.
Similar laws have already been passed, Texas and Indiana, and campaigns, as well as in other States have the support of advocacy groups spoke of autism.
The insurance industry medicare argued that the “mandates” as it ultimately does more harm than good.
“It is not because we are opposed to a specific mandate,” said Susan Pisano of America’s Health Insurance Plan, the club of Washington, the insurer. “We reject the idea of mandates to the rule, because we believe that at the end of this happens is that health care is less affordable and accessible, if less mandates are imposed. ”
But how, why autism is not primarily the industry insists that the behavioral therapy is an educational measure, not a medical, and are therefore not its Bailiwick.
“I think it is perfectly understandable that if you have diagnosed a condition, or a family member is a prerequisite for a diagnosis that you want to see,” said Pisano. “Traditionally, the service has been provided by the One of the early intervention programs for children in the age group 0-3 and schools for children, who are older. ”
Pisano said it is a real problem of public order. “We see across the country, as the number of autistic children on the spectrum is growing and budgets are reduced, we see a movement, the responsibility of a part of the services [government], the health care system . ”
For Unumbs and many other parents, but the bottom line is that their autistic child has been diagnosed by a doctor, not a teacher, and they want the coverage, they feel the right, after years of paying insurance premiums.
Lorri Unumb was so inundated with phone calls from parents of children with autism across the country want advice, as it also could be against one of the most powerful industries in the nation-states and win, and they keep their employees open workshops started to explain how it had been done.
During the shooting, perhaps they have done, if known, as it would be difficult, Unumb regularly to discuss the passion to collect, as community-based organizations, such as the receipt national legislators and signatures on the bills.
“If you have a child of autism, you are tired all the time. And, the latter, which in the world, the time you need to do is, for the insurance sector. Therefore, why does he persist this way a long time, it is very, that the people who have the motivation, the coverage, it can not, “Unumb.
But also with Bill Ryan’s past, she warns, it is not yet at an end. “I am already contacted by a number of people across the country, said it intends to South Carolina, because Ryan’s Law. It is also pleasant and disturbing. … It is gratifying, because I like to see Thus, the number of children as possible, the benefits of the new law. It is worrying, as it has not yet been implemented, and it is a
