Autism and medical insurance coverage: What some parents are doing to help their autistic children

The typical American spends about $317,000 over his or her lifetime in medical costs, with 60% occurring after the age of 65. By comparison, people with autism spend nearly twice as much, with 60% of the costs starting after the age of 21. The figures were part of a study, “The Lifetime Distribution of the Incremental Societal Costs of Autism.”

The nonprofit organization Talk About Curing Autism estimates the annual cost of treating a child with autism this way: $11,250 for speech therapy, $11,250 for occupational therapy, and $59,400 for behavior analysts and therapists for a total of $81,900.

How much do insurance companies pay? It’s complicated. Curing Autism reports that while things like diagnosis, baseline testing, doctor visits and medications are covered, autism specialists often are not. (Check out “Insurance for Beginners” on the organization’s website.)

Lean about how some parents are advocating for insurance coverage for autistic children in “Virginia Autism Project” at Health Notes, a blog of the Newport News Daily Press.

To find out about the latest studies on autism, go to the Los Angeles Times blog posts “Researchers find there may be link between jaundice in full-term newborns and autism” and “Siblings of autistic children may have autism-related traits, study finds.”