The Virginia General Assembly is likely to approve a new mandate on health insurers to cover specialized treatment for autism. House Speaker Bill Howell, who supports the measure, believes it has been drawn narrowly enough that it won’t pose an undue burden on insurance premiums. Advocates say it will “…cost businesses less than $1 per month per autistic child…” Perhaps so.  But it will still raise costs, something Virginia lawmakers have made quite a habit.

A 2010 survey health insurance mandates by the Council for Affordable Health Care finds that states impose 2,156 mandates on health insurers.  Virginia has 57 separate mandates for coverage – more than all its bordering states save Maryland, with 67. About half the states in the country have an autism mandate, which, by the Council’s reckoning, adds anywhere between one and three percent to premium costs.