Your Contacts are Needed!

The Senate is back in session for the New Year. We need to show the Senate that our proposed legislation is supported across the state by a large number of individuals, organizations, and coalitions. We have been targeting the individuals up until this point, by asking you to make personal contacts with your legislators, but now we need to appeal to the Senate's economic concerns. We want to show the long term cost-savings benefit to passing this legislation. We need to show them that it makes good business sense to support these bills, and it's not JUST the right thing to do for all the families in Michigan affected by autism, but for the state itself, as its economic future will be greatly impacted by the long-term costs to society if something doesn't change soon.

Specifically, we are asking you to reach out to any organization you belong to, any board you may sit on, any chamber of commerce or nonprofit group, business organization or coalition, and ask them if they will support this effort. We are looking specifically for non-autism related groups. We already have the support of the autism community; now we are reaching out to the business community and those organizations that support children and family issues. We are not asking for the organization to do anything right now. We just want to know if they are in support of the concept of not allowing insurance companies to deny autism coverage. At some point in the near future, we may go back and ask these organizations for a statement on their letterhead, to contact the senate, or for a board-approved resolution, but, at this time, we would just like to know if their organization can support the idea behind this legislation. Also, we would like to know if they are willing to allow the name of their organization to be listed in writing to show the statewide support we have from the various organizations in Michigan.

If you have such an organization willing to support our effort, please take a moment and send an email to Stephanie Harlan at sharlan@comcast.net. Please include the name of the organization and any contact information for the person with whom you spoke. Once we have a list of supporting organizations, we will also post it on this website for reference and update it frequently. Listed below is a partial list of organizations already committing their support. If you have any questions or would like any supporting documentation to send to these organizations, please contact Stephanie Harlan or Ann Breznai at traveltrio@verizon.net.

We would like to have this list compiled in the next couple of weeks, so please send us your contacts as soon as possible! Thank you so much. We could not do this without the effort of each and every one of you!

Below is a partial list of organizations and businesses supporting autism insurance legislation as of 4/23/2010:

ACT Network

Ann Arbor Families for Autistic Children's Education and Support

Autism Advisory Group Autism Alliance of Michigan Autism ASK

Autism Insurance in Michigan (AIM)

Autism Resource Network

Autism Society of America

Autism Society of America - Oakland County Chapter

Autism Society of Washtenaw County

Autism Society of WestShore

Autism Speaks Autism Alliance of Michigan

Beaumont Hospitals

Behavior Analysts Association of Michigan

Detroit Medical Center DTE Energy Company

Early InterventionCenter

Easter Seals

Elder Disability Rights Association Section of the State Bar of Michigan

Family Chiropractic Clinic

First Capital Directories

Forestview Lanes

Fravel Financial Services

GFWC Madison Heights Intermediate Womens Club

Glenn Buege Chevrolet

HOPE Network Image One Corporation Jack's Place

Kaufman Children's Center

Michael James Associates

Michigan Association of Elementary and Middle School Principals

Michigan Association of IntermediateSchool Administrators

Michigan Association of School Administrators

Michigan Association of School Boards

Michigan Association of School Psychologists

Michigan Association of School Social Workers

Michigan Council for Maternal and Child Health

Michigan Nurses Association

Michigan Pharmacists Association

Michigan PTA

Michigan Secondary School Principals Association

Michigan Speech Language Hearing Association

Middle Cities Education Association

Monroe IntermediateSchool District

National Alliance on Mental Illness - Michigan Chapter (member of Partners for Parity)

National Council of Jewish Women, Greater Detroit Section

The Abilities Center

The Ann Arbor Center for Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics

Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District Wayne County