LETTER: Getting the facts straight

Barbara Dodge got some of her facts wrong in her June 26 letter in the News & Messenger. She mentions that Del. Bob Marshall sponsored the autism imsurance bill, HB 1588, which was referred last
January to the Commerce and Labor Committee. This bill would have had the state pay up to $36,000 for autism therapy to families with insurance. This hit a personal note for me and my husband,
retirees with a 5-year-old grandson with autism. He attends a public Prince William County school in a K-2 autism program, but we pay for the private Applied Behavior Analysis therapy which is so
necessary for him to learn to speak and to remediate social behaviors associated with children on the spectrum. The parents of our grandson have insurance, which does not cover ABA, but they can’t
afford to pay for this private therapy, so my husband and I are paying for it with our retirement funds.

Marshall was only one of the several state delegates who co-sponsored the bill. David Poisson, Democratic delegate from the 32nd District of Virginia, pushed for the bill, among other delegates from both
parties.  Marshall, the Republican delegate from the 13th District did little to move the bill up, and the Republican majority delegates voted it down because they are against any bill which might cost the
state additional money for education.

I am hoping that when John Bell is elected to be the 13th District’s delegate in November, he will again bring this very serious matter up for a vote and a Democratic majority will approve it.

The passing of this bill would ensure that the children with autism would get the help they need at an early age thereby saving the state having to pay for prolonged institutional care or special needs
classes as the child grows.These kids can be mainstreamed into regular classrooms at a much earlier age if they are given the proper autism therapy when they are as young as 3, but it’s very
expensive and many families do not have the funds to pay for it.

Bob Marshall is a career politician who does nothing for the children of Virginia most in need of the state’s help. New Jersey and Connecticut just passed similar bills in their state legislatures. In NJ, the
autism insurance bill would pay the insured families up to $56,000 a year — a mere drop in the bucket for yearly autism therapy.

GLORIA M. MOSCATELLO

Gainesville