Furious Seasons

November 02, 2009

House Health Care Bill Contains Autism Training Initiative

The House health care reform bill rolled out last Thursday contains what it calls a "National Training Initiative on Autism Spectrum Disorders." The feds are setting aside $17 million in the first year of the bill, assuming it passes and merges with whatever the Senate drums up, and unspecified amounts in later years of the proposed 10-year package. (Text beginning at page 1402 of the bill, downloadable here.)

As near as I can tell from the bill, these are largely technical assistance grants, providing for:

"eligible entities to provide individuals (including parents and health, allied health, vocational, and educational professionals) with interdisciplinary training, continuing education, technical assistance, and information for the purpose of improving services rendered to children and adults with autism, and their families, to address unmet needs related to autism."

Most of these grants would be aimed at universities. The main thrust is to:

"provide training and technical assistance in evidence-based practices to evaluate, and provide effective interventions, services, treatments, and supports to, children and adults with autism and their families; (II) include individuals with autism and their families as part of the program to ensure that an individual and family-centered approach is used; (III) share and disseminate materials and practices that are developed for, and evaluated to be effective in, the provision of training and technical assistance."

It's not clear to me how all of this will improve health care delivery and access much less reduce the cost of health care, but perhaps I am missing something. None of the ASD blogs I've checked in with have picked up on this funding, so I guess they don't consider it such a big deal. Aside from postpartum depression advocates getting the MOTHERS Act carved into the bill, as I reported on Friday, ASD is the only mental disorder to get any sort of special treatment in the bill.

Combined with $60 million in NIH funding from the federal stimulus bill, this has been a big year for autism advocates with the Congress and Obama Administration. I hope they get some results with all of this money.

Posted by Philip Dawdy at November 2, 2009 12:03 AM

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Comments

Re: "It's not clear to me how all of this will improve health care delivery..."

You could no doubt uncover hundreds of similar examples in that Leviathan of a bill. Because it's no doubt porked-up out of control. Because that's what Congress does.

That money may be targeted to specific universities associated with specific states and/or congressional districts. The political motivations for much spending are intentionally opaque.

Expect no rational leadership out of Washington. When it appears to happen, it's only an accident.

Posted by: SteveM at November 2, 2009 05:30 AM

Good coverage of the health care bill and you've identified some serious weaknesses overall in your several posts on the topic. It's discouraging when lawmakers are writing laws about stuff they don't really bother to understand. And sliding things in that aren't really relevant to the overall goal (not necessarily including autism research in that -- just making a general point). I'll be trying to work on my representatives but it's an uphill battle and a lot of stuff here to grasp before sounding off. Thanks for helping to define the issues.

Posted by: Sara at November 2, 2009 07:38 AM

I have been too overloaded lately to write about this one so far, but it strikes me as a kneejerk sop to organizations like Autism Speaks. They're not taking into account what people actually need: consideration of our neurological differences, and some practical help at times, definitely not more being treated as sick. Here's one excellent post on it: Autism and Medical Coverage.

I agree with Joel that any services autistic people (including us adults) actually need ought to stay in the general disability services category, rather than being specifically medicalized.

Posted by: Urocyon at November 2, 2009 10:19 AM

I work at a school and the cases of Autistic Spectrum Disorders continues rise far beyond the available resources. Increased understanding and compassion is needed from support services. I recommend www.WrongPlanet.net as an excellent resource.

Posted by: JJ at November 2, 2009 09:47 PM