California Senator to Insurance Industry: Stop Denying Pregnant Women Coverage

As much as our country fawns over babies and the unborn, pregnant women are often treated like second-class citizens, at least by the insurance industry. For those women not covered in an employer group insurance policy, access to care is parsed to the point of non-existence.

Last year, an investigation by the House Energy and Commerce Committee found that the individual health insurance market regularly denies pregnant women coverage and limits their ability to purchase maternity care. The four largest for-profit insurance companies listed pregnancy as a medical condition "that would result in automatic denial of individual health insurance coverage."

In California, one legislator is looking to change that. Senator Noreen Evans has introduced SB 155, which would ensure health insurance access for pregnant women. Currently, group insurers and HMO's are required by law to cover maternity services, but individual plans aren't. As a result, the number of individual health plans that included maternity coverage dropped from 82 percent in 2004 to just 19 percent in 2009.

That means that self-employed women or those in jobs without benefits have an even harder time of finding coverage in the dreaded individual market -- where rates rise according to insurer's whims and denying coverage is the norm.

"The status quo singles out women, narrows their health options, and forces them into a market scheme that makes finding comprehensive coverage more difficult and expensive," Senator Evans said in a press release. "These women are responsible actors, seeking to purchase health insurance out of their own pocket. Forcing these women to pay higher costs, and often nudging them out of the market altogether, simply because they are women who may become pregnant is fundamentally wrong."

Without coverage through work or on a partner's plan, expectant moms face paying exorbitant prices for necessary prenatal care and delivery procedures. The American Pregnancy Association (APA) estimates that the cost of delivery alone is $6,000-$8,000, and that's for a normal pregnancy. High-risk pregnancies and hospital stays can tack on thousands.

And when insurance companies refuse to cover a woman just because she is pregnant, the outcomes aren't just financial.  The APA estimates that approximately 13 percent of women who become pregnant each year are not insured, often resulting in inadequate prenatal care, which can lead to complications for the mother and child.

According to childbirthconnection.org, the United States is the only wealthy industrialized nation that doesn't guarantee access to essential health care for all pregnant women and their infants. And we rank 28th in the world in infant mortality rates, largely due to health disparities.

This isn't the first time California has introduced legislation to mandate insurers offer maternity coverage; AB 1825 made it to Governor Schwarzenegger's desk, but he vetoed it. The insurance industry, not surprisingly, also opposed that legislation, stating that mandates would drive up cos.ts

It's clear that women, at the very least, should be able to purchase a plan that covers prenatal care in the open market. Let California's legislature know that this critical bill must make it into law.

Photo credit: zeeweez