A Letter to the Editor

Submitted this morning. . .

The Wisconsin budget. Sigh, what a mess. Buried under the new taxes and the perks for the usual suspects, the absence of the provision that would have required insurance companies to pay for therapy for autistic children like mine was not really discernable. However, families like mine felt the loss deeply.One of the first things that echos in the mind of parents as they struggle with the initial diagnosis of autism is the hope that therapy provides. The hope attached to the intensive expensive therapy required cannot be underestimated. This treatment is one large piece of solving the puzzle, and while my son is one of the fortunate ones, it is the shoving aside of the many parents and children who are in desperate need for this help, and the ones who have yet to be diagnosised that saddens me. This jettisoned provision was important, and it would have helped many parents in their struggle to help their children deal with autism.