Clinton Unveils Plan to Support those Living with Autism

At an event held today in Sioux City, Iowa, Hillary Clinton outlined her plan to to help families who face Autism on a daily basis. The sweeping plan includes increasing screening, improving treatments, creating partnerships for employment opportunities, and committing additional research funding to better understand Autism. During the town hall, Clinton introduced her plan, then took questions from those in attendance. In addition to discussing her plan at the event in Sioux City, Clinton also released additional details on The Briefing. An outline of her plan is below.

• Screening and Awareness
  • Boost early screening rates with a nationwide outreach campaign
  • Promote multi-sector awareness campaign
• Autism Treatment and Insurance Coverage
  • Improve access to autism services in the ACA marketplace and through private health insurance
  • Increase state compliance with Medicaid coverage requirements for children with autism and other developmental disabilities and create an autism-service-access scorecard that makes state Medicaid compliance publicly accessible
  • Work with the Department of Defense to ensure military families have full access to autism services through TRICARE
• Safety and Services for Children and Youth
  • Enact the Keeping All Students Safe Act
  • Protect children with autism from bullying in their classrooms
• Community Supports and Services for Individuals Transitioning into Adulthood
  • Launch a new Autism Works Initiative consisting of a post-graduation transition plan for every student with autism aging out of school-based services and a public-private partnership with employers
  • Combine the Autism Works Initiative with new legislation to fund employment demonstration grants for individuals with autism and other disabilities
  • Increase housing opportunities for autistic youth and adults
• Caregiving
  • Encourage all states to enact ABLE legislation and ensure consumer protection for ABLE account beneficiaries
  • Provide new support to caregivers
• Research
  • Significantly increase funding so that the government can invest more in autism research
  • Call for the first-ever adult autism prevalence and needs study
• Enforcement
  • Ensure states meet their obligations under IDEA’s Child Find Program to identify, screen, and refer children with disabilities for services
  • Ensure access to assistive technologies
  • Enforce mental health parity protections
  • Continue vigorous enforcement of Olmstead
  • Dedicate new funding to autism protection and advocacy

A video from the event is below.

For all the latest, follow our revamped Scheduled Events page and follow Clinton on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

News Source: The Briefing, Time

Hillary Clinton Hosts Three Iowa Events

On Monday, Hillary Clinton returned to Iowa where she hosted three events. The first was in Davenport where she set the tone for the day with a plea for voters to turn out and support her in Iowa’s caucus on February 1. She vowed to protect, and improve the Affordable Care Act and rework the economy so that it helps everyone and not just those at the top. She also spoke about other points from her platform including voting rights, gay rights, and women’s rights. A video from her event in Davenport is below.

Clinton then traveled to Cedar Rapids where hosted a town hall event. She gave a brief speech before taking questions from the crowd. One of the questions was in regard to Republican rival Donald Trump and his recent comments about her and President Barack Obama being responsible for the creation of ISIS. She responded by saying, “I’ve adopted a new year’s resolution. I’m going to let him live in his alternative reality and I’m not going to respond.”

Clinton wrapped up the first day of her trip to Iowa in Des Moines. The event was billed as a “Get Out the Caucus” rally. Her speech was similar to one she gave earlier in the day in Davenport where she stressed the importance of voters to turn out and vote for her at the February 1 caucus. A video from the event in Des Moines is below. A videos from Cedar Rapids will be posted when/if available.

Tomorrow, Clinton will host three additional events in Iowa. The events will be held in Osage, Sioux City, and Council Bluffs. For all the latest, follow our revamped Scheduled Events page and follow Clinton on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

News Source: NBC News, The Des Moines Register, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times

Update 1/5/16: Added video from Des Moines