The Court of Appeal of Catanzaro has condemned the Provincial Health Authority of Cosenza to fully reimburse the expenses incurred by a family from Cosenza to guarantee their son, suffering from a serious autism spectrum disorder, access to rehabilitation treatment with the ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) method. This was announced by the family’s lawyers, Salvatore Francesco Panza and Marco Giovanni Caraffa.
The controversy, they explain, began in 2019, when the minor’s parents, “in the face of the persistent inertia of the ASP of Cosenza”, were forced to take legal action to obtain recognition of their son’s right to promptly receive Aba therapy, “already prescribed by the same health workers of the health authority and by renowned structures of national importance, including the Bambino Gesù pediatric hospital in Rome”.
“Despite the clarity of the clinical picture and the scientific validation of the treatment – the lawyers argue – the ASP has never provided for either the direct activation of the therapy or the identification of an alternative public rehabilitation path, forcing the parents to bear an economic burden of more than 70,000 euros”.
By reforming the first instance sentence, the Court of Appeal recognised, the lawyers continue, “that the body’s failure to provide it constitutes a violation of the constitutionally guaranteed right to health, affirming the obligation of the public administration to guarantee effective access to therapy, also through reimbursement of expenses incurred by the family unit”.
Furthermore, the ruling “reiterates that the Aba method does not constitute a discretionary choice of families, but rather a scientifically validated therapy, included in the national guidelines, widely prescribed by public and private clinical centers in the specialist field”.
«We express our deep satisfaction – say the lawyers – Panza and Caraffa – for a provision that has systemic implications, tracing a significant jurisprudential precedent for the protection of families who, in Calabria, as in other parts of Italy, are confronted daily with the disinterest of healthcare institutions towards neurodevelopmental pathologies»