Translated by Lone Star ABA Services LLC’s BCBA and AI team
What It Says
Senators Eric Schmitt (R-MO) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) sent a letter to the Pentagon asking that ABA therapy become a basic medical benefit under TRICARE, the military health plan. Since 2021, TRICARE has covered ABA only through a special demonstration program with extra hurdles: mandatory repeat testing, required parenting stress questionnaires, limits on where therapy can happen, and fewer approved billing codes than private insurance allows. The senators cite a newly completed independent review by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which found that ABA meets the military's own standards for reliable medical evidence and recommended ending the redundant assessments, letting clinicians pick their own tools, approving all standard ABA billing codes, and allowing therapy in schools and community settings.
What It Means For You
Texas has one of the largest military populations in the country, so this matters to a lot of local families. If you are a TRICARE family, nothing changes today; this is a letter, not a rule change. But it is the strongest signal yet that the extra paperwork TRICARE families face, like the required parenting stress surveys and re-testing that other insurers do not ask for, may be on its way out. If your family is covered by TRICARE and ABA services have felt harder to access than friends with private insurance describe, that is real, documented, and now on Congress's radar. Families who want to be heard can share their experience with their congressional office; letters like this one gain force when constituents echo them.
Reviewed by: Amber Neely, BCBA, LBA · 07/03/2026