what's cooking?

Great story, made much more so in my case because I'm such a dummy when it comes to childhood mental illness. Very informative.

Couple questions. Is autism considered a mental illness? I don't think I saw it mentioned. And what about insurance coverage for mental illness. Cost can be quite expensive, right? Some insurances give good coverage, I assume Kaiser must be among them, but others I would assume don't.

The complexities of medical insurance would make a good article in itself.
 

Dave, autism is considered to be a spectrum disease and may or may not be covered w/in the HMO's psychiatric areas. And yes, the cost is huge-but with organizations such as ACT-Today, many of them help families pay for the cost of all the various therapists and counseling that will be needed.
And cost will depend on just what each child needs and various insurances. some will cover everything and others won't cover a darn thing!