Former NBA player rallies behind NJ bill to cover stuttering treatments
The former NBA player from New Jersey was joined by two children, Benji and Ari, who also stutter, in making their voices heard.
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'I have been judged a lot as an athlete and also as a person,' Kidd-Gilchrist testified to lawmakers. 'For us who stutter, as an adult and as kids, at times, it's very, very hard and challenging for us to be understood.'
If passed into law, the bill would require health insurers and State Medicaid to provide coverage for medical expenses for treating stuttering, which includes rehabilitative speech therapy, whether in-person or virtual.
'I do see it as a human thing, you know?' said Kidd-Gilchrist. 'It's not an 'R' thing, it's not a 'D' thing.'
While Kidd-Gilchrist's testimony echoed through the halls of the State House, his advocacy has spanned far beyond the walls in Trenton; the longtime Charlotte Bobcats/Hornets player had his voice heard in the Capitols of Pennsylvania, where he was born, and in Kentucky, where he went to college.
'Speech therapy exists, yes people can pay for this. There is also a really large cost associated with that,' said the bill's primary sponsor, Assemblywoman Alixon Collazos-Gill (D-NJ 27th District) .'That's also one of the hurdles – that even if we know that those therapies exist, the financial hurdle is pretty significant.'
The bill advanced through the Assembly Financial Institutions and Insurance, or AFI, Committee last Thursday.
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