Many of our members are shocked to find out that most health insurance policies sold on the individual market do not cover maternity care at all.[1] Take, for example, Rebecca from New Mexico, who just wrote us this note last week:

"My husband lost his full-time job and benefits in January, so we were forced to take our chances in the individual private insurance market. Despite the fact that I have to pay more for the same insurance simply because I'm female, I'm also subject to a special, female-only exclusion: maternity care. That's right, if I get pregnant, my maternity care is NOT covered. The insurance agent we spoke with said this is common practice; private policies which include maternity are so expensive that she doesn't even offer them."

Can you believe this? And Rebecca isn't alone. The vast majority of individual health plans do not cover maternity care at all.

Sadly, at least one of our Congressional leaders doesn't seem to understand that maternity coverage is a fundamental need. Today, Senator Kyl of Arizona said, "“First of all, I don’t need maternity care. And so requiring that to be in my insurance policy is something that I don’t need and will make the policy more expensive.”

Happily, Senator Stabenow spoke up immediately: "“I think your mom probably did." Amen!!

You can tell Senator Stabenow "Thanks for sticking up for moms!" at http://bit.ly/1UyT9Y.

[1] National Women's Law Center, "Nowhere to Turn: How the Individual Health Insurance Market Fails Women," http://action.nwlc.org/site/PageServer?pagename=nowheretoturn

P.S. Healthcare reform would require that maternity care is a covered benefit in plans sold through the new health insurance exchanges.

In a recent study of over 3,500 individual insurance market insurance plans nationwide, the National Women's Law Center found that only 12% offered comprehensive maternity coverage, and those were offered in just half of the cities examined.[1] This means that most women buying on the individual market -- including many women who are self-employed or work for companies that don't provide insurance -- are simply unable to get their maternity care covered and are forced to pay thousands of dollars in hospital bills. (What a way to start a family?!)