Gov. John Kasich pushed for the plan announced Friday after state lawmakers weren’t able to agree on similar proposal.

He says it will be a lifeline for parents who have been unable to get health insurance coverage for their children with autism.

State health officials say parents can get coverage through health insurance sold in the private market and in the federal health insurance exchange along with the state employee health insurance plan.

Ohio will join 32 other states mandating treatment and services for children with autism.

Health experts say that one out of 88 children has autism.

Imagine if you had a trained nurse whose job is to be your personal health guide, a care coordinator.

Not only could you call them, whenever you feel like it, but they call you.

“Care coordinators” call you to see if you have questions after a doctor’s visit. They want to know about any issues you’re having. They talk with all your doctors and specialists, to make sure everyone’s on the same page and that treatments are coordinated.

And imagine that this care coordinator is your advocate within the system.

This is the promise of a new model of health care, called a “medical home.”

It’s designed to give you that personal guide, and put all your health care under one umbrella.

“And I think the reason that it’s called ‘home’ is the notion that everyone should have one,” says Anne Weiss. She’s the senior program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a national philanthropy that’s funded medical home initiatives across the country.

“I think one of the most frustrating things I have experienced as a patient, and most all of us have experienced, is the complete absence of coordination. To me the concept of the home is the notion that there is one place that knows where you are, knows everything about you, and is helping you make decisions and staying in touch with you,” Weiss says.

Minister Kenneth Taylor serves at Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church on Cleveland’s east side. It hasn’t been easy for him to stay healthy.

“I been through a lot, with its ups and downs, with this diabetes. I never thought I was going to get on track with it,” says Taylor.

In 2009, MetroHealth enrolled Taylor and more than 10,000 other Northeast Ohio patients in a medical home pilot program.

And the results are promising.

Patients in the program had more office visits in the first year, but they had 35 percent fewer hospitalizations and about 7 percent fewer ER visits than similar patients not enrolled.

And Metro’s overall costs were lower for patients in the medical home.

Dr. Jim Misak is a physician at MetroHealth. He says the program works because it adds a new member to the healthcare team:

“The care coordinators really are the secret sauce to this program,” says Misak.

Care coordinators not only help patients navigate the system; they also keep people from falling through the gaps. They check up on them. They make sure they understand their doctor’s instructions and take their meds. They connect them to services they might need, like mental health or substance abuse.

Minister Taylor was a little taken aback when he first got a phone call from his care coordinator.

“At first I took it as a little…she was pushy! How dare she call me and tell me, you know?”

Geneva Jones laughs. She’s Taylor’s care coordinator. They’ve worked out a good relationship now.

“I think he realized the value of the relationship when he was able to call me and say this is happening, should I go to the ER or do you think I should get an appointment or I don’t have this medication, what’s available?” says Jones.

The program has paid off for Taylor. He feels better. His diabetes is under control.

He trusts his medical team, which is made up of Jones, his care coordinator, his primary care doctor, Kenneth Frisof, and other specialists.

Taylor voice tracks as he talks about when he was in a bad spot, Dr. Frisof went to personal lengths to make sure he stayed on track.

“I remember coming here and I couldn’t get my insulin one day, and he reached in his pocket and said ‘This is not a loan, but go get your insulin.’”

These programs are still in the experimental phase and still face a major hurdle: how to pay for it all. Right now, insurance doesn’t cover the services.

But as the healt hcare industry tinkers with how best to deliver care, the medical home could end up with a starring role.

Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, who also heads the state insurance department, calls the findings from consulting firm Milliman Inc. alarming. The Republican Taylor says the law will have widespread and expensive impacts.

Taylor is Ohio’s point person on implementing the new health care law, and its advocates complain that her statement was overly partisan. Cathy Levine of the group Ohio Consumers for Health Coverage says consumers can have no expectation that Taylor is working on their behalf.

Two-thousand-eleven has seen remarkable natural disasters in the U.S.: tornadoes, Hurricane Irene, and wildfires. These catastrophic events have caused at least $23 billion in damage to insured properties. And the hurricane season is only at the half-way mark.

Blake Zitko, a spokesperson for State Farm Insurance, said disasters outside of Ohio will not affect local insurance premiums.

“Ohioans are not going to have to pay for a natural disaster that took place say on the east coast or the west coast. We only charge one for their premiums of the risks they absorb,” Zitko said.

Insurance companies such as State Farm, Nationwide and Grange Insurance all said insurance premiums are based on multi-year trends – not a single event or even a single year. Peter McMurtrie is the chief claims officer for Grange Insurance.

“It’s really been in the last five years that we’ve seen a fairly significant change in the weather patterns particularly in the Midwest and specifically here in Ohio,” McMurtrie said.

Columbus experienced a significant hail storm in 2006; then the half-billion dollar wrath of Hurricane Ike in 2008; another considerable wind storm in early 2009 and flooding this year.

“It is reasonable to assume that there will be increases in homeowner rates again this year, but I think those increases customers have been seeing over the last couple of years as carriers have been reacting to this multi-year trend in weather that has been occurring,” McMurtrie said.

But the insurance industry is a global one. And it has accrued more than $75 billion in losses this year. You’ll recall the Japan earthquake and tsunami and flooding in Australia earlier this year. Greg Locraft, Morgan Stanley’s lead analyst for property casualty insurance, said Ohio insurance policies will be affected by national and global catastrophes.

“That amount of loss gets spread across the globe. And what ends up happening is, insurance is a game of large numbers. Everybody individually pays a small amount of money into a pool. And that pool covers losses over the entire world,” Locraft said.

Insurance companies buy their own insurance to cover losses, just like property owners. But because of the massive losses this year, insurance companies are likely to see hikes in their own insurance rates. That too could be passed on to customers. But most agree, including Locraft, that will be minimal.

“It’s not the kind of thing that’s instantly going to flow through to consumers,” he said.

Bottom line, you can expect your insurance bottom line to go up this year; Locraft predicts anywhere from five to 15 percent.

Lawyer Maurice Thompson is a lawyer helping Tea Party activists push for a state constitutional amendment that would declare Ohioans exempt from the federal mandate that everyone must buy health insurance. The movement has just file dabout 540,000 petition signatures; if election officials rule 386,000 of those valid, the exemption plan will go on the ballot.

Defenders of the federal law warn if the insurance purchase mandate is dropped, key reforms could be decimated, including the ability of people with pre-existing medical conditions to get coverage.

Before a multi-million dollar debate erupts with TV ads, there’s likely to be a legal fight. Defenders of the law say they’ll challenge some of the signatures, and perhaps there won’t be enough to get the measure on the ballot.

Homeowners insurance policyholders need to read closely what their new policies require. There could be a higher deductible for certain weather related events like wind and hail damage. Ohio has seen a number of such storms over the past 5 years and because insurance companies look at past events to predict costs, prices could be going up. Nationwide Insurance is one company that has raised deductibles for hail and wind damage to $1,000. Spokeswoman Liz Christopher.

“These are effective at the time of renewal so when your policy renews. Customers will get a letter with their declarations page letting them know about this change,” said Christopher.

Christopher says letters were sent out starting in May to all Ohio policyholders. She adds the higher deductible could be equal to or less than paying a percentage of the loss.

“Our responsibility as an insurer to protect customers against the financial loss of property due to certain insurable losses, and higher deductibles allow us to continue providing competitive rates for our customers by sharing losses with property owners,” added Christopher.

Other insurance companies have not raised deductibles. Chief Claims Officer with Grange Insurance, Peter McMurtrie.

“Grange Insurance does not force place a deductible on an insured. We believe that again that is a personal decision that each individual insured needs to make himself, understanding that higher deductibles do create higher discounts in terms of the cost of insurance,” said McMurtrie.

McMurtrie adds though that he understands a company increasing deductibles to keep insurance affordable. Spokesman for the Ohio Department of Insurance Jarrett Dunbar says higher deductibles for certain claims are allowed and have been used for 15 years.

“It’s very important that policyholders read their policies from cover to cover and when they get a renewal notice in the mail to read that renewal notice as well because there may be some changes that are being implemented by the company that they may not agree with,” Dunbar explained.

Dunbar adds that insurance companies make a prediction on future claims by what has happened in the past. He points out that homeowners insurance in Ohio is the 6th lowest in the country. An average policy here costs $548 a year compared to Florida where it costs about $1500.

Ohio Insurance Department spokesman Jarrett Dunbar says Hurricane Ike was likely one of Ohio’s biggest disasters in terms of insurance claims.

Ohio homeowners filed an estimated 220,000 insurance claims after Ike. Dunbar says the state insurance department received 281 complaints about the handling of those claims, most involving insurance company refusals to replace roofs.

Ohio Department of Insurance spokesperson, Jarrett Dunbar, says TPAC members can still file claims up to $100,000 dollars. But he says in early October, that coverage will run out:

“So it’s important that folks who currently have insurance through TPAC find other means of health insurance whether through their employer or through an independent agent.”

TPAC covers about 350 small and medium-sized private businesses, or about 8,000 members, in the Central Ohio Area.

Audubon Society member Heather Raymond arrives to greet me early on a summer morning near the boat ramp on the Whittier Peninsula. Raymond, with binoculars in hand, has been coming here for the past five years, documenting, she says, the hundred species of birds that visit the area.

“Oh! You just about had a Cedar Waxwing almost land on your head so that was a pretty nice first encounter here at the Whittier,” says Raymond.

This Metro Park has been a work-in-progress for several years. Part of the property adjoins an abandoned industrial area and the police department’s impound lot. But closer to the river – except for the noise of traffic – you would not know you’re just a mile from downtown. A heavy line of trees covers both sides of the Scioto

“Out on the water we’re looking at a Great Blue Heron a very common bird seen here at the Whittier but a really fun one to watch; about four feet tall, six-foot wingspan, and they just slowly prowl the peninsula looking for their fish food,” Raymond says.

The Audubon Society has designated this location as an Important Bird Area. It’s especially valuable to migrating birds because of its dense strip of forest. That’s one reason that the Audubon Society chose to build a nature center here. Heather Starck is director of the center which celebrates its grand opening August 28th.

“Audubon could have chosen to have put this nature center many other places. But the reason we picked downtown Columbus is that as a conservation organization we can really inspire people in their everyday life to be good stewards of the environment,” Starck says.

To do that the center has several classrooms that will teach urban dwellers about birds and other animals, about riparian areas and about the river. Building the new nature center cost about 5 and a half million dollars. One side offers a dramatic view of downtown Columbus. On the other side, the dense woodland of the Scioto Audubon Metro Park.

“Oh! That’s a catbird,” Raymond says. “They’re a mimic and they’re kind of fun to listen to. You’ll hear a variety of sounds and they’re kind of all strung together.” Construction work at the Audubon Center is still underway. On the north side of the center bulldozers are building a wetlands area that when completed will have a board walk and bird blind. The adjoining auto impound lot will be moved to a new site when the city’s budget permits. The 18,000 square-foot center has geothermal heating and cooling and an abundance of glass to allow for maximum natural lighting. The glass was manufactured with an inlaid design that helps deter bird strikes. Audubon Center director Heather Starck:

“One of the things that you want to do is use the maximum amount of day lighting as you can so lots of green buildings have lots of windows in them. But we’re also a bird conservation organization and birds and windows don’t always go together well. So what you’re seeing here is something called fritted glass. So that pattern is actually made into the glass when the glass is being made so it’s just enough to distract them so that they know that there is an object there that is not a natural object,” Starck says.

Back on the Scioto River, Heather Raymond has found two bird species that are good signs for the new partnership between the city, the Audubon Society and the Metro Park system.

“Out there is a Great Egret and actually I think that’s the symbol for National Audubon so it’s kind of nice to see out here,” Raymond says. “Also perched up on the fence row over here is a Song Sparrow which is actually the symbol for Columbus Audubon, so it’s kind of nice to see both the symbol for the local Audubon chapter right next to the national Audubon symbol and kind of shows that both of our symbols are out here and representing this beautiful area.”