Senators urge Pentagon to add autism therapy as basic TRICARE benefit amid budget limits

Sens. , sent a letter Friday to Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth calling for the removal of rules in the TRICARE program that have blocked some Applied Behavior Analysis therapies for children with autism. Nbc News reported the letter less than 24 hours after detailing coverage restrictions faced by military families and retirees.

Gillibrand and Schmitt, both members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which oversees the Defense Health Agency and TRICARE, asked the Pentagon to make ABA therapies a basic benefit. The therapy helps children communicate and learn daily life skills.

In one case highlighted by NBC News, the program restricted coverage for Logan Cabiao, a 10-year-old nonverbal boy with severe autism who requires round-the-clock care.

Logan receives TRICARE through his father, Mario Cabiao, a retired Air Force pilot, and had received the therapy for several years until new requirements added in 2021 narrowed services. “It is unacceptable that military families are being denied essential care for their autistic children,” Gillibrand said in a release.

” Kristi Cabiao, Logan’s mother, founded a nonprofit to lobby for the changes and said she last visited Capitol Hill in March.

Key lawmakers told her at that time that the budget was tight and changes were unlikely this year. Both senators had supported an independent analysis by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine that recommended updating TRICARE policies to include ABA as a basic benefit.

The Defense Health Agency declined to comment on the initial NBC News report and did not immediately respond to questions about the letter.