“Of all of the health disparities that this committee considers, this one should rise to the top.”

The witness was the mother of a child with PANDAS – Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders.

PANDAS is an obsessive-compulsive or tic disorder that suddenly appears following a strep infection.

One parent spent virtually the entire hearing with his head down – ashamed, I thought, or he didn’t want us to see him crying.

“This is a treatment that is medically prescribed,” declared another witness.  “We don’t want to set up a Go Fund Me page.”

House Bill 447 would require the Medicaid program to pay for certain services for these children and require health insurance companies to provide coverage for certain diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment for the disease.

Our job is to decide who should foot the bill.

We also heard House Bill 134 today.

It presents the same dilemma for insulin.

According to a witness from the American Diabetes Association, prices for insulin have tripled between 2002 and 2013, and in much of Europe, the cost is about one-sixth of what it is in the United States.