Health Insurance | Can I Get Health Insurance Coverage If I Am Pregnant?
So many women have questions about their eligibility to get health insurance if they are pregnant, or if they are thinking about getting pregnant soon. There’s so much confusion right now in the health care insurance marketplace. New laws are constantly being implemented. Disease rates are at all-time high rates. Premium rates continue to rise, year after year (and are expected to continue for who knows how long). The fact is that women are confused about their insurability, especially when they are pregnant.
So, can you get health care coverage if you are pregnant?
The answer is YES. Not all the new rules and regulations are horrible past belief. There are a couple of the new codes that protect a pregnant woman’s right to obtain and maintain health care coverage at a fair market rate. You see, it used to be that insurance companies could deem a pregnancy a “pre-existing condition” and thereby deny a mother-to-be health care coverage. But those days are gone now. Health care insurers are NOT permitted to deny a woman coverage because she is with child; not any more.
- Prenatal care;
- Maternity ward care;
- Delivery and recovery;
- Educational classes and more…
And they didn’t want to do it! And they still don’t want to, but now they have to. In the eyes of the insurer, if a woman is already pregnant, then there is at most 8+ months for her to make payments into the policy before she is sure to file claims associated with her pregnancy. In fact, she will need care beginning right away, See HBF & their hospital coverage for more on this. She will need ultrasounds, prenatal care and education, Lamaze classes, regular check-ups and more – until she is ready to deliver the baby – and that’s when the health care expenses really add up!
So, right off the bat, the insurer is taking a hit in the mouth. What could they do to make up for this unavoidable payout? They could jack up premium rates on the policies of pregnant women; really jack them up. But guess what, there’s another new insurance law that prohibits insurers from inflating the price of policy premiums for a mom-to-be’s health care. Additionally, all newly issued health care plans MUST include specific preventative care services (like prenatal care) at absolutely no out-of-pocket charges for the soon-to-be mom.
Pregnant women cannot be denied affordable health care insurance anymore!
I personally feel that this is really unfair to the insurance companies. Think about it: they have to incur substantial financial losses, right off the bat after entering into a for-profit business relationship with the pregnant woman. If the insurer is ever to see a profit from her, she will have to continue paying into that policy, and not switch health insurance providers, for years after she delivers her baby. I don’t see why society at large should have to absorb those costs. It just doesn’t make sense to me. If people can’t afford to be pregnant, then they should concentrate on not getting that way.
