There is a bill in California that is waiting for the Governor to sign it into law. If he does, then the law would require insurance companies to cover the cost of maternity care. Right now, very few health insurance policies will cover maternity.
A bill called SB222 is waiting to be signed into law. It must be signed by Jerry Brown, the Governor of California, before it can become a law. The bill is part of a package of legislation that would require health insurance companies to actually cover maternity care. In short, the law will close the “loophole” that insurers are currently using to deny coverage of the medical bills related to maternity care.
Right now, women who become pregnant are put into a very difficult situation in regards to health insurance. If the woman has a health insurance policy, she might assume that it would cover maternity. Unfortunately, most of the time, this isn’t the case.
Many insurers specifically exclude maternity coverage from a typical health insurance plan. Often, women do not learn that their health insurance will not cover maternity until after they are already pregnant. Insurers want women to pay for an extra “rider” for maternity coverage long before the woman ever considers becoming pregnant.
This situation leaves many women without the insurance coverage they need. If a woman who is pregnant tries to purchase extra insurance for maternity, she typically gets denied. Insurers consider pregnancy to be a pre-existing condition, and use that “loophole” to exclude maternity care coverage for the women who need it the most.
What if a woman doesn’t have health insurance at all when she becomes pregnant? Again, insurance companies are not going to approve her applications for health insurance. If they do approve it, they will intentionally exclude coverage for maternity.
This leads many pregnant women to apply for pubic forms of health insurance, in order to get the coverage that they need. In California, the Access for Infants and Mothers program covers all costs. The problem is that by the time women get approved for that program, they have already missed important care and critical tests.
The bill is designed to prevent these problems from happening. The cost of pregnancy care, and the cost of delivering a baby in a hospital, can run into tens of thousands of dollars. The state of California is having a big problem with its budget. If private insurance companies are required to cover maternity, then the taxpayers wouldn’t have to pay for it, (like they are doing right now).
Insurance companies, of course, are balking at this requirement. They argue that some of their policyholders won’t need maternity coverage, so they shouldn’t have to pay for it. This implies that insurers will pass on the costs of having to cover maternity onto their customers. To me, this sounds like a threat. Another argument is that this bill is unnecessary because federal health reform is going to make the insurers cover maternity in 2014 anyway.
Image by janineomg on Flickr