Howard P. "Buck" McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015

Floor Speech

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Chair, I rise today to thank Chairman McKeon and Ranking Member Smith for including an amendment that I offered with Rep. Tom Rooney in en bloc amendment #7 and I urge my colleagues to support its passage.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Rooney and I, along with other colleagues like Rep. Walter Jones have been engaged in an effort for several years now to ensure that children with developmental disabilities that are covered by TRICARE, can access the behavioral health treatment that they require. It was an issue that was brought to my attention by a constituent whose husband is in the military and who has a child with a developmental disability. The challenges her family faces however, are also unfortunately experienced by numerous military families across the country.

While TRICARE does provide access to a multitude of services for families, there are limitations on them from fully accessing the appropriate level of care for their children for a behavioral health treatment known as applied behavior analysis (ABA). Currently families must navigate a complicated web of programs within TRICARE, each with eligibility or coverage limitations, in order to get access to treatment. In addition, children with developmental disabilities do not have access. Our amendment simply seeks to streamline coverage for these services as a medical benefit under TRICARE Basic, which would ensure access to these services for the dependents of both active duty and non-active duty beneficiaries.

These are families that have sacrificed a great deal in the service of our nation, and it is our obligation to make sure that their children get the health care services that they need. This amendment is designed to do just that. Many children with developmental disabilities require other types of treatment such as habilitative and rehabilitative services like speech, occupational, and physical therapy that are already covered by TRICARE. However, because of the current restrictions, there are cases where some of these children are not able to access the prescribed level of ABA treatment. I want to make it clear that this amendment will not, nor is intended to, alter any services that a child's team of health providers deem necessary and are currently covered, like those already mentioned, but simply ensures that they can get the ABA services that they've been prescribed. In addition, as mentioned in the amendment we believe that amounts should be appropriated to ensure that all TRICARE beneficiaries have appropriate and equitable access to behavioral health treatment, including ABA.

This is just simply the right thing to do for our military families who have sacrificed so much in the service of our country. Once again, I thank my colleagues for their support on this important issue on behalf of military families across this country.

Source