After much frustration with trying to prove what is appropriate for my son with the school district, I asked my advocate if there are any other ways to get services for my child. She said she had heard that a few parents have gotten ABA, speech, and OT covered by their health care insurance under “Assembly Bill 88.” But she admitted she did not know much about it and heard that only a few parents have been successful in getting it funded. I thought it surely couldn’t be any more difficult than what I was going through with the school district.

So I left her office and found the closest Starbucks to boot up my computer, as I could not wait the forty-five minute drive I had to get home—I wanted to immediately search the web for Assembly Bill 88. I found the link to which she was referring and read every single detail referenced on the site: http://www.insurancehelpforautism.com/index.html.

Then I rushed home and got on the phone with the insurance. And within a month I had the following in place; 40 hour home-based ABA program, three 45-minute speech sessions a week, and three 50-minute OT sessions a week. I have been able to keep this program intact for more than a year now. The insurance paperwork is a lot of work, but so worth the effort.