Autism affects thousands of American families every day. In most cases, families must go into debt to pay for the comprehensive therapy they feel their children need; behavioral therapy is not covered by most insurance. Utah state senator Howard Stephenson and state representative Roger Barrus (both R) plan to change all that. In January, they will introduce a bill in the state legislature that would mandate providers of Utah health insurance to cover treatment for autism.

In the Salt Lake Tribune, Heather May outlined the provisions of this bill:

• The bill will only cover treatment for autistic children under 5 years of age, because that’s when therapy is said to have the greatest impact.
• The type of treatment covered by the bill is most likely to be ABA therapy (applied behavior analysis), which consists of up to 40 hours a week of one-on-one therapy that helps autistic children learn to communicate and teaches them appropriate social skills. ABA is widely considered to be effective, but it has been criticized by some for being an unproven method.
• Companies that are self-insured, as well as the federal government, will be excluded from the health care coverage mandate.
• The insurance will have a $30,000 annual cap, as well as a lifetime cap.
• The bill will also require families to contribute financially.