dr. dawson, i will start with you. you mentioned that virtually no comparative effective treatments for autism. this is something we have to focus on. we have to do the research. as mrs. halverson pointed out, we're in the here and now. families are struggling. we're facing this whole generation growing up and what is going to happen to them as adults. we have to focus on the most effective treatments we have now. this committee provided over $1 billion in the recent recovery act. dr. insel mentioned that earlier. $1.1 billion, up to be exact. if you cannot, we do not say exactly where to put them. but do know if any of those dollars will be spent on autism? ion included autism as one of the conditions that should be included. have you been watching or do you have any involvement in trying to see that some of these studies are done on early intervention programs? >> i am aware of the focus by the agency for health care equality on a comparative effectiveness. we have some recommendations in terms of the questions that

dr. gillian dawson and joshua cobs from iowa. dr. pickens boyd from minnesota and dana halverson from iowa. we have covered all the aspects we wanted to cover on autism with these two panels. we will open up with dr. thomas insel from the institute of mental health, not a stranger to this subcommittee. dr. insel, welcome. as with all the people testifying here, your statements will be made part of the record in their entirety. go-ahead and proceed as you so desire. >> thank you, mr. chairman. it is a pleasure and honor to be here with the other panelists. i know this is a busy time for you and your colleagues and we appreciate your taking time in the middle of the summer just before recess to hear about the latest research and challenges with autism. my brief is to get you a quick update on the research since we last met which was two years ago and i can tell you this has been an extraordinary period with lots of exciting progress. i will try to review that. the testimony i hope will be submitted for the record. i thought i would tak

dr. dawson mentioned is private insurance.there are virtually almost no policies in our state that cover autism therapies. there's none. in fact, it doesn't only cover behavioral therapy but senator cochran and harkin, it only covers 20 visits of any type of speech, o.t. or p.t. so usually by the first six weeks of the year, you've run through your insurance coverage for your child. because that is combined speech and o.t. so you can see why many of these children are not getting the assistance they need because the visits are kind of costly. so those are the things that we looked at as to gaps that had a to be filled in the state system and federal system. >> mr. chairman, i think we ought to introduce a bill to modernize our laws. [laughter] >> on medicaid and reimbursement. this ought to be included. >> yeah. how do people afford to do this? >> they can't. >> i mean, frankly, they can't. i don't have the exact figures but i know that we've been working quite a bit to get insurance in virginia. a number of states have insura

dr. dawson is right about that. i know we are running out of time and i think it should be said by someone here that's there will be time in the future that we will have been much better understanding of the causes of autism one concern that many people have is that if we get stuck by looking at one thing over and over again, we are going to miss the opportunity to look at what may be a much more important calling. i think dr. lawson and i agree that whatever the store with the vaccines, it does not explain very much about what we know about autism. we may never be able to fully eliminate -- illuminates a very rare event that could be put in play that could connect the two. but this is not the main story. the question for us is, where is the main story? where should we be looking? i hope that the focus on this topic, particularly in this conversation today, does not obscure the fact that there is probably something out there that is truly important and that we need to be focusing on very quickly and move into very q