Starting next July, the bill will require private insurers to cover diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorders, up to $36,000 annually, for those under 21. That includes coverage for applied behavioral analysis therapy – or treatment focusing on teaching social, verbal and other skills to help shape behavior – which advocates say is essential to treating the disorder.

For treatments above the $36,000 cap, families, regardless of income, can still turn to the state’s Medicaid program to fill in the gap. Health plans covering businesses with fewer than 50 employees are exempt from the bill.

Rendell and others who championed the issue believe Pennsylvania’s autism-insurance law is among the strongest in the country.  read more »

HOW BAD IS the Pennsylvania Legislature?

So bad, they’re talking about it in Washington.

The Brookings Institution, the oldest think tank in America, a centrist (leaning left) nonprofit, almost always referred to as “the prestigious” Brookings, held a daylong round table this week on our own beloved Legislature.

More than 30 smart people from academia, foundations and reform- and issues-oriented groups, all with Pennsylvania ties, gathered for a work-through-lunch day of idea pitching.

37 agencies have entered contracts, 81 have not.

The state Treasury Department says that a free, searchable online database for state contracts is up and running.

An expansion of Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law that was signed in February by Gov. Ed Rendell required the creation of the database as a way to improve government transparency.

The former local beauty queen at the center of a Capitol job-for-sex scandal continues to work for the state.

Angela Bertugli is being paid $45,344 a year as a legislative researcher, despite telling prosecutors that she believes she got her state job in the first place because she was having a fling with the top aide to House Democratic Leader Bill DeWeese.

DeWeese (D., Greene) has defended keeping Bertugli on the House payroll because she did the right thing in cooperating with authorities in the corruption probe known as Bonusgate.  read more »

He testified for two-and-a-half hours, then answered questions grand jurors submitted to prosecutors.

“I gave them documents to support what I had to say and told them more of what I believed to be true,” including information about how tax dollars in huge, unaudited legislative accounts get used, Shaffer told me during a lengthy interview.

His testimony set off sparks that led to a firestorm now threatening to engulf more political careers than maybe anything else in state history.

Shaffer gave up his boss, former Beaver County Rep. Frank LaGrotta, D-Ellwood City, for hiring “ghost” employees.

Sean Ramaley’s path to becoming the youngest member of the state Senate once seemed like it had already been paved.

Bright and well-spoken, the lawyer and two-term state representative from Beaver County won the Democratic nomination to run for the 47th Senate district after securing key endorsements from party officials and labor unions.

But the 33-year-old Ramaley’s political career sustained a potentially fatal blow last week when he became ensnared with former Rep. Michael Veon and 10 current and former House Democratic aides in the state’s biggest political corruption scandal in years.

MUST-CLICK.... there’s a photo of Veon in handcuffs doing the perp walk.

The jobs with the state House of Representatives’ Democratic caucus included good benefits, the prestige of working for state lawmakers and the privilege of working in the grandeur of Pennsylvania’s Capitol.

The work involved staying late — sometimes doing nothing and other times doing campaign-related work — but it was offset by compensatory time off. There was variety, too, in the form of travel to far-flung legislative districts during election season, often for weeks at a time.

There also was the potential to be labeled a ‘‘superstar’‘ and earn a year-end bonus paid for with taxpayers’ money.  read more »

By any measure, the filing of corruption charges against a dozen people connected to the House Democratic caucus brightens Attorney General Tom Corbett’s future in Pennsylvania politics — including a possible bid for governor in 2010.

In a single news conference last week, Corbett shed his previously low profile and established himself as a champion of cleaning up state government.  read more »