Tag: House Bill 399 (2019)

The House has voted to require insurance companies to cover therapies for developmentally disabled children in Missouri, which would expand on a 2010 law that required coverage for therapy for children with autism.

House Bill 399 would prohibit companies from limiting coverage in fully insured plans for physical, cognitive, emotional, mental, or developmental disabilities.  That is less than one-third of the existing plans in the state, covering somewhere between 1,800 and 6,000 children.

The legislation is sponsored by Rocheport representative Chuck Basye (R).  He said for children to be able to continue treatments when they are young could help them avoid long-term needs and issues later in life.

“Speech therapy can prevent a child from needing a [gastrostomy] tube or from aspirating and getting pneumonia; physical therapy can prevent very expensive orthopedic surgeries and lifelong issues; and occupational therapies can prevent a child from injuries,” said Basye.

One of the driving forces behinds Basye’s interest in the issue is his relationship with a constituent, 9-year-old Nathan, whose mother Basye met during his campaign for reelection.   Nathan is one of the children who could benefit from the passage of HB 399, if only indirectly.

“Nathan and I have this connection through our dogs and he found out I’d lost one of my dogs very unexpectedly last July, and a couple of days later we were at this fundraising event for another candidate and he learned through his mother that I’d lost my dog, and he made an attempt on his own to go get me a little balloon animal dog and came over and gave it to me,” said Basye.  “I thought that was pretty cool.  I’ll never forget that moment.”

Kirkwood representative Deb Lavender (D) is a physical therapist.  She said often, children will start therapy but insurance will cover a limited number of sessions.

“So many complications can occur after that.  They don’t fully maximize their physical ability, mental abilities, capacities, and so being able to extend this therapy is so critical for these children at that time in their life,” said Lavender.

St. Louis Democrat Steve Butz called the bill well-thought-out and a good compromise between parents who were advocating for a change, and the insurance industry.

“These therapies are medicine for these developmentally disabled children.  They are medicines that improve the quality of life, help these children attain goals they could never attain, and the costs of the therapies are quite inexpensive when compared to other experimental drugs and other pharmaceuticals that, say, a child with leukemia might need for his or her survival,” said Butz.

HB 399 would not cost the state anything.  It is projected it would increase premiums for holders of fully insured plans by about 39-cents per member, per month.

The House voted 129-5 to send the bill to the Senate, which last week passed its version of this legislation.