Changes to Ontario’s autism program need to be put on hold and the system redesigned to better serve children and be more cost-effective, experts and parents said at a press conference Thursday. Laura Kirby-McIntosh of the Ontario Autism Coalition, right, speaks during a press conference at Queen's Park where parents and experts urged the Ford government to pause its autism plan on March 14, 2019. “Our reforms to the Ontario Autism Program were developed with a belief that all families of children with autism deserve support from their Ontario government,” a spokesperson for MacLeod said Thursday. Three out of four children with autism “were not accessing service” when the PCs took office, said Kitchener South-Hespeler MPP Amy Fee, a mother of two with autism and a former advocate. (In Missouri, where health insurance companies must cover autism services, families can claim up to the equivalent of about $61,000 Cdn per year for a child, with the annual average being less than $6,700.)

Source: thestar March 14, 2019 22:14 UTC