Autism mandate in Oklahoma fails along panel’s party lines

A House committee Tuesday defeated a measure that would have required insurance companies to provide coverage of treatment for autistic children. The move sent a crushing blow to parents and supporters who may find it harder to get similar legislation introduced the next two years.

As about 75 people, mostly parents of autistic children, watched in two overflow rooms, members of the House Economic Development and Financial Services Committee voted along party lines to not advance the Democratic-backed bill.

Under House rules, bills with similar topics of measures that are defeated by a committee may not be heard in this or the next session, said the committee’s chairman, Rep. Daniel Sullivan, R-Tulsa.

"The autism mandate — we are finished for two years,” Sullivan said.

Bill author Rep. Mike Brown, D-Tahlequah, asked committee members. "Who’s running this, the insurance companies or you legislators?”

Previous effort failed

The autism mandate proposal was an emotional issue carried over from last year, when a House committee twice refused to let parents speak. Last year, parents lined up with pictures of their children in the committee room. This year, parents from Alva, Tahlequah, Tulsa, Ardmore and Clinton watched from two adjoining committee rooms.

"They tore the Band-Aid off now quickly because they think they won’t have to endure the public scrutiny for the next two years,” said Sen. Jay Paul Gumm, D-Durant, author of a similar autism mandate measure in the Senate.

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