Expecting Women to Save on Medical Bills Under Obamacare

In a new announcement, lower-income pregnant women will get the benefit to save on medical bills. The “to-be-mothers” who signed up for insurance coverage will get the privilege as an additional coverage. This will be available in all states allowing women to save hundreds of dollars from beginning of pregnancy to childbirth.

Medicaid already funds for nearly half of U.S. births, but the pregnant women who have this coverage do not meet the minimum coverage requirement as per the new law since the coverage will expire soon after the child birth. Initially, Affordable Care Act did not allow women to enroll in both government-subsidized private insurance and Medicaid, but the Treasury Department ruling allowed pregnant women to sign up for both coverage forms. Although, the program was not instilled in the systems till recently! Another shortcoming is that majority of individuals are not aware of the latest change or how to sign up for the program.

Though, the total cost to be paid by the government for this maternity option is uncertain, it is confirmed that the pregnant women can save in a substantial amount of money through it. Usually, a normal delivery costs $5,000, while complicated ones entail more money along with the deductibles and copayments, which are to be paid by the patient. But with Medicaid supplementing coverage, the patient can save thousands of dollars.

As per Cynthia Pellegrini, Head of Washington office for March of Dimes, majority of women do not consider the maternity coverage while signing up for an insurance coverage under ACA and only think about their monthly premiums. As majority of pregnancies in U.S. are unplanned, the pregnancy costs come as a big surprise. Additionally, the move is taken to promote healthy pregnancies by providing better pre-natal care to the expecting women and to prevent any birth defects or pre-mature child births.

Now, a major challenge is to reprogram the state and federal computers so that the systems can recognize that some to-be-mothers have a coverage right for both Medicaid and Insurance Exchange Private Plans. Thus, they have the option to pick from Medicaid or insurance or both.

Before the ACA, only 12% individual market insurance plans covered maternity care, but now from 2014, the service has been included in the essential service list and all health insurance plans under Obamacare must offer this service. This means that now the expecting mothers have extended options to make substantial savings on their maternity bills.