Bill in State Capitol would require insurance companies to cover stuttering for children
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WCIA) — Stuttering can be triggered by trauma and sometimes develops over time, leaving many young people to struggle with communication due to inaccessible treatment.
A new bill filed by Senator Willie Preston (D-Chicago) would require private, public, and state health plans including Medicaid who cover habilitative or rehabilitative speech therapy to provide healthcare coverage for children struggling with stuttering, no matter the cause.
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Preston, who struggled with stuttering at a young age, said that providing coverage to kids early will help them overcome the challenges and make them more productive members of society.
'We want to ensure that regardless of anybody's economic situation, that every child in Illinois has an opportunity to overcome the speech issue that they are faced with through no fault of their own, including stuttering,' Preston said.
Under the state's current law, speech therapy is covered by insurance for habilitative service for individuals under 19 with congenital or genetic stuttering only if it is deemed medically necessary in order to help them learn and improve their speech skills. However, some insurance plans have limitations that could exclude stuttering treatments, leaving many families paying out of pocket.
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The Illinois Life and Health Insurance Council was in opposition at the committee hearing.
Kate Morthland, director of policy and advocacy at the Illinois Life & Health Insurance Council, said they are not against the intent of the bill, rather they are concerned about the confusion it would create with current state mandates.
'We're not opposed to the underlying mandate. We just want to make sure that we're operating within existing law compliance,' said Morthland. ' If the bill were to pass now, there would be conflicting definitions within the insurance code, which would lead to compliance issues from insurance companies because they wouldn't know how to handle coverage for two conflicting definitions.'
The Illinois Life and Health Insurance Council said they want to work with legislators to expand the existing statute instead of creating a new mandate which they said could create confusion on coverage requirements and make it difficult for insurers to properly do their job.
A couple of Democrats backed the bill including Senator Laura M. Murphy (D-Des Plaines). She talked about her experience with her son who also needed therapy but insurance would not cover it unless he was born with it.
She said the full coverage will help children receive better treatment and help their development.
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'I tried to explain that babies can't speak, babies can't talk. How do you know if it's congenital or not? Because they can't speak and they don't speak really clearly until they're three to four years old,' Murphy said. 'They impede their educational development because of a language problem that could be prevented. It's simply an issue that can be corrected and for our insurance companies not to provide full and comprehensive coverage for speech therapy, regardless of the diagnosis, it's criminal.'
The average speech therapy session costs between $100 to $250 per session, and with some appointments even higher based on the location.
The bill has been assigned to the Senate Insurance Committee. If it passes it will take effect at the beginning of 2027.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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