National Council wants better support for children with autism
Published: Monday, Dec 9th 2024, 23:20
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The National Council wants better support for children with severe autism spectrum disorders. An amendment to the law should ensure that disability insurance continues to co-finance appropriate measures even after a pilot trial has ended.
The large chamber approved the bill on Monday by 134 votes to 54 with no abstentions. The no votes came from the SVP parliamentary group. The matter now goes to the Council of States.
Specifically, this involves so-called intensive early intervention for children of pre-school age. This includes both medical and educational measures from the fields of psychotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, special education and psychology.
In August, the Federal Council wrote in its communication on the dispatch to Parliament that the effectiveness of this is already recognized. This is particularly because the brain's plasticity is still very pronounced at this age.
According to the state government, however, the detailed accounting and billing of the scope of the various measures presents difficulties, with medical measures being covered by the IV and educational measures by the cantons. Since 2019, a pilot project has shown that joint federal and cantonal funding is appropriate. The pilot project will run until the end of 2026, as Social Affairs Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider explained in Rat. The plan is for the IV to contribute a maximum of 30 percent.
The pre-advisory committee recommended the bill for approval by 17 votes to 8. However, in contrast to the Federal Council's draft, it wanted to stipulate in the law that the Federal Council must consult experts before regulating the details.
The Council agreed with her on this point.
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