Third-year Law Student Helps Autistic Children

Thanks in large part to third-year law student and Assemblyman James Ohrenschall ‘09, autistic children in Nevada now are more likely to gain access to effective therapy treatments.

Signed into law by Governor Jim Gibbons, Assembly Bill 162 sponsored by Ohrenschall requires insurance companies to provide as much as $36,000 in annual coverage for autistic children, who often require expensive evidence-based autism therapies, such as Applied Behavior Analysis.

Ohrenschall, who was elected to the Nevada Assembly in 2006, said one reason he introduced the bill is that as many as one in 150 children suffer from autism.

Nevada is the eleventh state in total and the third this year to enact comprehensive autism insurance reform.