Military Parents Battle the System to Help Their Autistic
Children  December 21, 2008 RSS Feed Print   • Comment (36)
Karen Driscoll might seem the unlikeliest of lobbyists to cruise
the halls of Congress. Indeed, the Marine Corps wife and mother
with three young children, one of whom has autism, didn't
envision herself hustling down the marbled corridors in a power
suit. Yet, on a recent fall day, Driscoll is maneuvering her way
like a K Street pro, eager for any opportunity to make her case
that the Pentagon's healthcare system is failing active-duty
military families with autistic children, families like her own.
And there are many of them. By the Pentagon's own data, some
13,243 of the estimated 1.2 million children of active-duty
military personnel have been diagnosed with autism spectrum
disorder. Only 1,374, though, are qualified to receive treatment
under the extended care arm of the federal healthcare program
TRICARE. A congressionally mandated hybrid of both military and
civilian medical services,