I wanted to share a video. It’s of Brian Calley, the new lieutenant governor of Michigan talking about his daughter, Reagan, who has autism and about autism insurance reform here in Michigan. Like many other states, insurers in Michigan are not required to pay for autism treatments. Therefore, they don’t. Many families, like ours, can simply not afford these treatments. I applaud Mr. Calley for speaking out and making this his personal mission.
In the video, Mr. Calley talks about being embarrassed. He is not embarrassed of his daughter, he explains, but embarrassed to ask for help in raising her. I think that we, as parents of special needs kids, have all had that feeling. We must admit, at some point, that we just don’t know what to do. We should be able to supply all our children need, right? Not in the case of special needs. We need help, and we need to seek it out. It just needs to be more accessible.
I can’t end this post without mentioning that Reagan Calley is in Roman’s class at school and she is just the absolute cutest thing ever.
PLEASE, everyone, autism insurance reform affects us all. Call your senator on MONDAY November 29th and tell them to vote for the Autism Insurance Reform bill on TUESDAY November 30. See the comment below by Ann for more information.
Autism Awakening ~ Roman's Journey 
I applaud you for posting this very important story, but I am pleading with you to take the critically important step of adding the “rest of this story.” Yes, Rep. Calley is talking about his daughter’s experience and, yes, he talks about the autism reform legislation that is currently in the senate. However, you did not include what people – and at this crucial point in our journey, they don’t need to be personally effected by autism – anyone, can do to help ensure we GET this legislation passed NOW before session ends. If we do not pass it now, we lose 6 yrs. of hard work and education of the current legislators and will have to start completely from scratch, which will mean at least 2 – 3 more yrs. before we could possibly have another chance of getting this done. So, IF you want insurance coverage, this is the “all hands on deck” moment. We need EVERYONE to be contacting the senators on MONDAY and, as many as possible, to show up in LANSING on TUESDAY! Please ask everyone you know to help with this cause. Visit the AIM (Autism Insurance in Michigan) Facebook page or our site at http://www.autisminsurancemi.blogspot.com where you can find more information and keep updated. We have THREE DAYS LEFT, that’s all! PLEASE HELP us to get this done NOW!!
I have already contacted Sen. Alan Cropsey, who was on the AIM facebook page as being a critical vote and happens to be my senator about his vote. I will be calling Monday and ask everyone in Michigan to do the same. This doesn’t only affect those of us with autistic children, it affects ALL of us in the long run.
Great post. I just shared it with others on Twitter. I’m going to write a post, too and link back to YOU 🙂
Thanks for the share! LMK when you get a post, I’ll share it too.