Inside The Minnesota Autism Insurance Coverage Hearing

By Tim Kasemodel

On Wed, Jan 30, 2013, a hearing on insurance coverage for children with autism was held in the MN State House.  During that hearing, State Rep. Mary Franson of Alexandria MN addressed the cause of autism.

This is what Franson said:

Representative Norton, thank you for bringing this bill forward. As a mother of three children, I am very thankful than none of my children have had to experience autism, or my family hasn't had to go through that experience.

But also, I'm one of those parents that no longer vaccines either because of the fear that I have had talking to other parents that have experienced their child becoming --experiencing autism after what they found, what they believed correlated with the vaccinations.

But I'm just curious: you know we can talk about insuring and that's great, that's hope for the families that are experiencing autism now, but what I'm really interested is ending autism and so that autism is a thing of the past.

And with my own research online, mercury is one of those things, it's a poison, it's a neurological poison here that affects developing babies in the womb, it affects small children. . . California, Oregon and Minnesota are the three states that have the highest incidences of autism. Could you or do you know of any information that you may be able to share with us on what your beliefs are or theories are from the task force on what is being done to hopefully end this?

At this point, Tina Liebling stepped as chair:

Representative Franson, this is really off-topic. The bill is not about the origins of autism, so I think I'm just going to go on to the next person. I think there will be other opportunities to have this kind of discussion, but today in not the day. And as I said, we're going to reconvene at four in the basement. We can talk about the bill for as long as members want, into the night. . .

The first autism hearing at the Minnesota State Capital back on October 16, 2007, provided legislators with 'an overview of autism.’ Here we are 6 years later having to do the same thing all over again, except now the rate has nearly doubled. Then as now, the demand for research into the cause of autism were ignored. It’s clear that any legislator who dares question vaccines or any other environmental cause of the autism crisis is shut down and disregarded.

It is important that our political leaders are addressing a variety of autism bills in Minnesota and across the nation. That said, we can not shy away from questions asking why the rate of autism has exploded, resulting in what is an incredible growing financial burden on taxpayers.

My son has severe classic autism.  He also has many co-morbid medical diagnoses' that scientific research and his medical records show can be linked to adverse vaccine reactions that he experienced. He suffered unnecessarily for years because the behaviors caused by his pain were explained away as “autistic behavior.” We addressed his pain and his behaviors decreased. Our leaders need to understand that autism is not just a behavioral disorder, in many cases it is also a medical disorder.

Medicaid and other costs for my son's education, care and well being will easily be over one million dollars by the time he turns 18 in a couple years. There are many children with needs similar to my son’s; they number in the thousands in Minnesota alone.  The cost to our nation will be staggering. It is time our nation's leaders became proactive in trying to stop the rising numbers.

Representative Mary Franson is concerned.  She took the time to listen to her constituents, she educated herself about their concerns and spoke up for them and their children. It is time that more of our state and national political leaders stood up and demanded to know why our children are falling prey to autism at such epidemic rates.

 A Minneapolis newspaper ran an article about Rep. Franson with the title “Mary Franson spouts bogus autism theories at House hearing, gets shut down”. Writer Olivia LaVecchia  ridicules Franson for admitting she went to the internet for information. Soon after she writes “There was that infamous bogus trial -- run by a discredited doc on only 12 children -- that has since been ruled "dishonest and irresponsible" by the UK's medical council”. The sentence includes a hyperlink to – you guessed it – an online article written by Steven Salzberg.

 A reporter from the same paper interviewed me in 2008 where he portrayed me as a fat, angry desperate parent spouting an unsubstantiated high rate of 1 in 81 children with autism.  The CDC stated rate at that time was 1 in 150, yet even that rate was dismissed by Spokesperson for the CDC Courtney Leonard who said “It's really just the number for those locations, but it is out there as the national average."

 Within a few years we were hearing the same thing from the CDC and it showed that I was telling the truth. The rate is now officially one in every 88 children.   Let's hope we don't have to wait too many more years to hear that Representative Mary Franson was speaking the truth as well. 

Tim Kasemodel is just a dad in Minnesota, father of two wonderful sons, one of which struggles with medical issues due to adverse reactions to vaccines. While he disagrees with Representative Franson on other issues, he applauds her willingness to fight for our children.

Comments

[Jim Thompson]

Thank you Tim.

Look at how this drug company failed to speak or act for the victims of injuries from Thalidomide injury:

“We ask that you regard our long silence as a sign of the silent shock that your fate has caused us.”

“…the Sydney Morning Herald reported that never-before-published files showed that Grunenthal had been warned by German medical professionals about deformities, but failed to act on those warnings.”

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/08/thalidomide.html

And look at how the FDA fails to speak or act to protect children and pregnant women from exposure to the mercury compound Thimerosal still used as a preservative in flu shots:

“A weak association was found with thimerosal intake and certain neurodevelopmental disorders (such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) in one study, but was not found in a subsequent study. Additional studies are planned in these areas.”

http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/SafetyAvailability/VaccineSafety/UCM096228

So it seems that only our elected state and federal legislators are left to care, to speak out, and to act to protect our children from Thimerosal preserved vaccine injuries. Thank you Mary Franson.

[david burd]

Actually, where we "dissident" citizens (those questioning vaccine safety) get truthful information is FROM internet sources such as Boyd Haley, Andrew Wakefield, Russell Blaylock, on and on.

Where we citizens do NOT get truthful information is from the mainstream media ala Drs. Nancy Snyderman, Anthony Fauci, the Minnesota reporter, et al.

So, please do not castigate "internet sources" per se, as it is clear the Minnesota reporter only looked at what she already believed - and ignored the voluminous articles and doctors that have indicted the dangers of vaccines.

david m burd

[Laura Hayes]

Thank you for this article, Tim. Like Sylvia, I found it excellent to hear that a legislator had dared to speak the truth in a very public setting. I applaud her. And I applaud you for all of your efforts on behalf of your son, my son, and the many other vaccine-injured that now fill our country, and the world. Truth bubbles to the surface and cannot be kept down, even when one legislator tries to shush another. Truth resonates, even when a newspaper reporter tries to discredit it. The truth regarding the dangers and inefficacies of vaccines is spreading...may it continue to spread at an ever-increasing speed!

[nhokkanen]

Sad, sad, sad how the Minneapolis/St. Paul journalism community inadvertently reveals its lazy information sourcing on vaccine-induced autism. What they do is not reporting; it's a gossip circle jerk propelled by political spin.

First someone from the liberal MinnPost site posts a witch-hunt tweet about Rep. Franson not vaccinating, then the lightweight wannabe bloggers breathlessly run with it, along with the Moms Who Vax (a.k.a. "Unthinking Moms Devolution"). Finally City Pages, that dinosaur weekly, takes the last word by rehashing what everyone else has already written.

It's galling that all those paid writers displayed no curiosity about what scientific evidence and empirical observations compelled Rep. Franson to jeopardize her status by speaking out on a searing hot button health issue.

Of course Rep. Tina Liebling will continue to shut down Rep. Franson's causality commentary; she has a master's in public health and has worked against anti-Thimerosal bills. Her district is home to the Mayo Clinic, which is attempting to shake down the State of Minnesota for $500 million -- though that's only 10% of their proposed $5 billion improvement plan. (The Mayo, by the way, is worse than useless for vaccine-injured children on the spectrum.)

Over the years I've worked with many journalists and have seen lazy reporting and plagiarism firsthand. Heck, once one of my offhand secondhand comments to a then-friend about a theater performance ended up in print.

Tim, thanks for your post. It's pure tonic for a toxic journalistic world.

[Heidi N]

Just want to say that you are absolutely correct in that we are wasting time and money with all the fluff, and just need to focus on what makes our children better, so we know what caused it. It's obvious immune dysfunction, so we need to reduce things that lead to immune dysfunction. For my family, I sought out those who recovered their kids to recover mine. I did not follow those who helped their children, only those who recovered their children. I did no ABA, only gave them several gentle treatments to correct their digestion and immune dysfunction. I adopted a girl and recovered her as well. It's just an immune system out of wack leading to all the symptoms.

[PJCarroll]

I never know whether to laugh or cry when I hear yet another ignorant "repeater" scoff at someone who has educated themself via the internet, and who then spouts a bogus falsehood they simply regurgitated from mainstream media headlines! So many morons out there.

Tim - Thank you for sharing this. I agree that not only should we keep track of those who mock us, but we should do whatever we can to support those who fight for us. Rep Franson does not have a child who was killed or brain damaged by a vaccine, but she is brave enough to speak our truth to a very cowardly audience.

Most legislators are too corrupted or simply too scared to do what is right.

[Lou]

"It’s clear that any legislator who dares question vaccines or any other environmental cause of the autism crisis is shut down and disregarded."

Yes it is and will continue to be but YOU dear madam bravely said

"I'm one of those parents that no longer vaccines either because of the fear that I have had talking to other parents that have experienced their child becoming --experiencing autism after what they found, what they believed correlated with the vaccinations."

Now all we need is a few THOUSAND other law makers at all levels of "government" to say the same or similar thing and autism will go away as tens of millions of moms listen and STOP "VACCINATING".

[Les miserables]

Go Tim. We are taking names of the bastards who would mock us or our children, even as we strive for improved safety and public health of all our country's children. This fat, fatigued, messed hair mom will not forget who our friends are. Our enemies list includes ignorant reporters, doctors, politicians, and so many other "professionals".

[Tim Kasemodel]

Wayne,

Thanks for your comment. I know the purpose of the hearing was to address legislation geared toward insurance companies paying for behavioral therapy, and I understand that Rep. Franson’s comments were not productive to that end. I also believe she knew that as well, but like our past supporters in the MN legislature, she understands there is very little opportunity in St. Paul to bring up the controversial issue of causation. In other words ‘if not now, when’?

I wrote this post to highlight that there is much more to autism and health insurance than behavioral therapy. Many of our kids have health issues so serious that they were never able to participate in the benefits of ABA services. I wish the Minnesota medical community would honestly acknowledge the medical needs of our kids without automatically labeling many of their symptoms as behavioral in the first place.

I do support the legislation but I suspect that this will give the Legislators the excuse they need in order to say “We did our autism work, now lets move on”. I also strongly believe that Rep Liebling was being somewhat disingenuous when she suggested that they would be willing to directly address Rep. Franson’s questions later when she said “We can talk about the bill for as long as members want, into the night. . .”

When we worked on mercury legislation we joined with the Healthy Legacy group. They were working on a bill to ban mercury in consumer products in Minnesota. This is what I call “feel good legislation” – the kind that politicians can work on without sticking their necks out too far. Healthy Legacy and its supporters declined allowing us to include vaccines in that bill because they knew it would make it less likely that they would succeed. They did succeed – thank god our mascara is mercury free now – but our babies are still being injected with the crap to this day. (FYI the Vaccines for Children program does not supply enough thimerosal free flu vaccine for all of the kids that they target).

My main objective is to continue the discussion – not to let it die away just like our mercury bill did. There are thousands of kids out there like mine who can not wait for all the feel good legislation to run its course before any controversial discussions can even begin.

[Wayne Rohde]

Tim, Thank you for your words and sharing your son's journey with all of us. I have spoken directly with Rep Franson and support her efforts plus several others regarding vaccination policy in MN.

But the hearing was strictly about HF 181, insurance coverage for children with autism. From a pure strategic standpoint, this was NOT the place to discuss causation or vaccination policy. The chairwoman noted and the beginning of the hearing that they were on a tight timetable since there was another bill to be heard in that same committee. Along with providing nearly 1 hour of parent testimony, the cmte had to concentrate on the bill.

Now with that said, there will be opportunities down the road to discuss what you, Rep Franson, and I hold dear. But if the cmte would have started more detail discussions like causation, we stood a good chance of not having a House bill about insurance coverage advance.

But keep up the fight. We are all with you and many others.

[barbara j]

One would think ,given the politics of many, that no one would want our kids on federal programs, enough so that some of that energy would be directed toward placing the blame where it needs to be placed, on the profiteering pharmaceutical companies. Make them pay for a life time of programs to repair, heal those that can be healed, and support all of those who have lost their futures to their greed. It's no longer a matter of "accepting the best available science", not when they are creating that bogus science to support the poisoning of children. To those that are found responsible for supplying the medical industry with such manufactured safety approvals, there should be penalties to match their crimes.

[Sylvia]

Thanks Tim, it is great to hear about a politician that actually has the guts to stick their neck out for the truth. This is indeed a rare event. Here in California only a few brave souls have done the same. We need to support and thank them.
Here is Rep. Franson's contact info:
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/members/members.asp?id=15347

[Bob Moffitt]

Tim .. after reading some very harsh criticisms of Rep. Franson .. I sent her an email expressing my great appreciation for her courage in addressing a problem that thousands of parents have experienced .. taking their perfectly healthy child to a pediatrician and witnessing their child's "regression" in the days following vaccines.

I just sent an email to Olivia LaVecchia who wrote the "Mary Franson spouts bogus autism theories" .. respectfully asking if she has any reservations regarding the vaccines recommended and approved for pregnant women .. namely .. annual flu and recently added Tdap?

I did not have ingredients of Flu vaccines handy .. so I only gave her ingredients of Tdap:

Tdap (Adacel): "Aluminum phosphate, formaldehyde or formalin, glutaraldehyde, phenoxyethanol

Tdap (Boostrix): Aluminum hydroxide, bovine extract, formaldehyde or formalin glutaraldehyde, polysorbate 80

In addition, I also gave her ingredients for HEP B which is recommended and approved for infants within hours of birth:

Hib/Hep-B (Comvax): Amino acids, aluminum hydroxyphosphate fulfate, dextrose, formaldehyde or formalin, mineral salts, sodium borate, soy peptone, yeast protein

Hep B (Engerix-B): Aluminum hydroxide, phosphate buffers, thimerosal, yeast protein,

Hep B (Recombivax): Aluminum hydroxphosphate sulfate, amino acids, dextrose, formaldehyde or formalin, mineral salts, potassium aluminum sulfate, soy peptone, yeast protein

I also reminded her that recent studies have identified approximately 200 chemicals already present in the placenta of pregnant women .. and .. the synergistic dangers of these various exposures to chemicals are not well known.

Hey, I do not pretend to be an "expert" .. but .. I think common sense would question the wisdom of adding to the already burdened chemical exposure of pregnant women by then adding recommended and approved vaccines .. during the most critical period of neurological and physical development of the fetus .. soon to be .. newborn infant.

It must be me .. but ... does any of it make sense?

[Eileen Nicole Simon]

Insurance coverage should at some point involve actuarial science, which may prove more useful than medical research. The medical profession does not discuss iatrogenic procedures. Vaccination is a highly visible procedure, but too many other protocols we all take too much for granted.

My first two sons suffered trauma and anoxia at birth, and there is a great deal of evidence in the medical literature that problems during childbirth are found in the records of children later diagnosed as autistic. Too many of the papers on complications at birth claim that difficult birth is due to genetic problems with the mother or infant.

Shortly after I put up my website conradsimon.org, I was contacted by several people who asked if I knew how soon after birth the umbilical cord had been clamped. In Conrad’s case it was clearly before he was breathing. He was across the room being resuscitated.

Clamping the cord abruptly stops postnatal placental respiration, and may cause a brief period of asphyxia. It has been known for more than 50 years now that a few minutes of asphyxia injures brainstem auditory nuclei. Injured brainstem centers cannot provide the trophic neurotransmitters required for maturation of the cerebral cortex. Injured auditory nuclei also cannot process acoustic information, which may interfere with normal language development.