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The Kentucky Senate voted on Thursday to broaden insurance protection for individuals looking for treatment for stuttering, and the bill’s sponsor credited a former basketball star with the help.
The Senate motion to advance the bill got here after Michael Kidd-Gilchrist endorsed the measure at a Senate committee listening to. Kidd-Gilchrist performed on a nationwide championship crew on the University of Kentucky after which spent a number of years taking part in within the NBA.
But it is his willingness to open up about his personal struggles with stuttering that received reward Thursday.
“He’s a hero and a game-changer for using his position and his influence to do good for people that don’t have the resources that he had access to,” mentioned Republican state Sen. Whitney Westerfield.
Westerfield mentioned his bill goals to assist many extra Kentuckians obtain the treatment they want.
“There are a lot of Kentuckians … who either don’t have coverage, have coverage and it’s limited by these arbitrary caps — say 20 visit therapy sessions and that’s it — regardless of what your need is,” he mentioned. “You might need 10 times that many. But you can’t get it. And so unless you’ve got gold-plated coverage, and most Kentuckians don’t, you end up having to try to pay for it out of pocket.”
Charlotte Hornets ahead Michael Kidd-Gilchrist is seen in an NBA basketball recreation towards the Memphis Grizzlies on Dec. 29, 2019, in Memphis, Tenn. The Kentucky Senate voted on March 7, 2024, to broaden insurance protection for individuals looking for treatment for stuttering, and the bill’s sponsor credited the previous basketball star with the help. (AP Photo/Karen Pulfer Focht, File)
As a consequence, many individuals do not get the care they want. But his laws goals to vary that, he mentioned The bill would remove these arbitrary caps and require larger protection for stuttering providers, he mentioned.
His Senate Bill 111 heads to the House subsequent. Republicans have supermajorities in each chambers.
Kidd-Gilchrist pointed to his deep ties to Kentucky and his efforts to assist different individuals combating stuttering in a current op-ed printed within the Lexington Herald-Leader. He wrote that he is traveled the Bluegrass State to “hear testimonies” from individuals who stutter and advocate on their behalf.
“I am pushing myself to use the very thing that can be a struggle — my voice — to speak up for the community I represent and whose voices often go unheard,” he mentioned.
“A primary obstacle to treatment for those who stutter is the way that insurance coverage is structured for this condition,” he added.
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He mentioned there is a “staggering lack of data” concerning the general public’s consciousness of those that stutter.
“For children and adults who stutter to be set up for success in life and overall quality of life improvements, it is necessary that they be given access to all necessary procedures — from diagnosis to treatment to long-term speech therapy maintenance,” he wrote.
Speech remedy is the mainstay of stuttering treatment. Globally, 70 million individuals stutter and President Joe Biden has spoken publicly about being mocked by classmates and a nun in Catholic faculty for his personal speech obstacle. He mentioned overcoming it was one of many hardest issues he’s ever achieved.
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