One of the biggest challenges facing parents of Autistic children is paying for alternative treatments not covered by their health insurance. The state of Wisconsin offers families a waiver to pay for some types of therapy but many programs have waiting lists with wait times as long as two years.

Erin Junemann with the Wisconsin Early Autism Project says early intervention is important when working with Autistic children. Their one-on-one in home therapy sessions would cost a family between $40 and 50,000 a year. "They are not covered by insurance they are covered by a waiver and right now there's a two year waiting list to get on that waiver" says Junemann.

Legislators proposed a bill that would force insurance companies to pay for autism therapy. "Passing this bill, that would say that autistic children would be covered the same as any other illness and that waiting list would be eliminated." Says Senator Russ Decker. He says Senate Bill 178 had Bi-Parisian support and passed the senate but was stalled in the State Assembly. "We'll bring it up again next session. I imagine the Governor will include it in his budget again and if the assembly is controlled by democrats there's a good possibility it could be law."

The state's current waiver program doesn't cover therapy programs like DIR Floor-time offer at The Bridge Center in Marshfield. Despite that, the Co-founder of the center says the bill is a good idea. "I think this bill should pass absolutely, I'm a little concerned about the fine print of it in terms of who can be providers." Dr. Swink says the term provider is too narrowly described in the bill. She says it excludes parents who work with their children using program's like the Bridge Center's Floor-time. "Children need much more than the model currently provides. We'd like to see some expansion of the model and the definition of the term provider…I'm not suggesting parents get paid for their hours but they want their hours to count." Senator Decker says providers currently excluded may be added to future legislation.
"If people have a legitimate beef, or about other viable alternatives we'll certainly look at that."

For now, the only option for families looking for help is to pay for these services out of pocket or play the waiting game.. waiting on lists, or waiting for this proposed bill to pass.