Being Pregnant and Uninsured: The Difficulties
On September 30, 2009 in Health
Being pregnant is never simple. Being pregnant without health coverage is significantly harder. The frustrating thing is that no one wants to be uninsured if they have a choice about it, and often women become pregnant by accident, so the fair conclusion should be that health insurance companies would be supportive of uninsured pregnant women.
Wrong.
In reality Obtaining insurance for pregnant women is very hard. Why? The official reason is because the pregnancy is viewed as a pre-existing condition, a reason that causes a lot of people to struggle to get health coverage (i.e. if someone has Alzheimer, getting health insurance and does not possess insurance might prove to be very hard as well).
On one hand, it is possible to understand the insurance company’s view point: nine months of pregnancy can cost quite a lot: visits to the physician, standard screenings, the risk of complications and not to mention the delivery itself. However, pregnancy is a natural condition, and in this day and age we really should expect that there be laws assisting women obtain health insurance if they discover they are pregnant and do not possess health insurance.
Unfortunately, this is not the case - there is no federal law requiring insurance companies to help women in this situation. Many women would not even ask for a low cost medical insurance but would settle for whatever they get - but alas, even that is not a trivial task.
The good news is that there are several programs that offer maternity coverage for women, as well as programs that are insurance-like (which cover the entire pregnancy and delivery) - essentially, these are sufficient.
In our site, The Guide to Health, we offer a couple of articles that explain the alternatives available for women in this condition as well as offer links to one such a program. Hopefully, you, the reader, are not uninsured and pregnant - but if you are, this site can really help you.