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Autism advocates in Virginia are once again urging state legislators to pass a law mandating insurance coverage for autism-related health care. A vote before the full House this week marks the farthest such a proposal has ever made it.
The bill before the full house mandates $35,000 a year in health care coverage for children on the autism spectrum between the ages 2 and 6.
Teresa Champion, with the Virginia Autism Project, is the mother of an autistic teen. She says when she and other advocates in Virginia first started pushing for mandatory coverage a few years ago, they wanted coverage for children up to the age of 18. But she's still excited this year's proposal has made it out of committee, where it had died two years in a row.
"This is a very narrow bill, and none of us think it's everything we need from Virginia, but it's all we can get from Virginia today," Champion says.
Opponents of the bill say any mandating coverage for any group will increase health care premiums for all residents.
Christine Ha: From MasterChef To Home Kitchen
When Christine Ha won MasterChef in 2012, she blew the reality TV show judges away with her Vietnamese influenced cooking. But what really impressed viewers was that she had total control in the kitchen, even though she's blind. Host Michel Martin speaks to Christine Ha about her new cookbook Recipes from my Home Kitchen.Growing Vegetables From Seeds Take Root For Many Gardeners
More and more gardeners are bypassing the local nursery and instead starting their veggies from seed. Seeds are often cheaper and they give growers a bigger choice of varieties. At a community garden in Venice, Calif., students learn the ins and outs of gardening from scratch.Decades Of History Behind IRS Flap
Host Michel Martin looks into why some non-profits are tax exempt, and how something like the recent IRS flap could happen. She speaks with David Cay Johnston, a columnist for Tax Analysts and reporter Brentin Mock of Colorlines.com.Yahoo To Buy Tumblr In An Attempt To Revitalize Itself
Yahoo is expected to announce Monday that it's acquiring the social media site Tumblr, in a deal The Wall Street Journal and other news outlets are reporting to be worth about $1.1 billion. Some analysts are calling the acquisition an effort by Yahoo to be "cool and relevant" again.Leave a Comment
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