If you find out that you, or your wife or girlfriend is pregnant, one of the first things that expecting parents are concerned about is health insurance. If the expecting mother does not have health insurance, but is ready to start a new job, or is transferring to a new company during pregnancy, there may be concern of the pregnancy being considered a "pre-existing condition", and the woman was pregnant prior to receiving the insurance. This can present a problem as insurance companies are becoming more and stricter about pre-existing conditions and denying many people the opportunity for proper health insurance and thus, proper health care.
Fortunately, thanks to the Department of Labor's HIPAA Act of 1996, pregnancy is not considered a pre-existing condition, and thus an expecting mother cannot be denied health insurance. However, there are loopholes to this law depending on whether or not the insurance is a group or individual health plan. Group health plans tend to consider pregnancy as not being a pre-existing condition. Individual group plans will most likely not take a pregnant applicant, or the husband of a pregnant woman.
Many states offer individual health insurance plans for those who have a pre-existing condition that cannot be covered by another insurance source. If you are pregnant and cannot locate proper health insurance during and after your time of pregnancy, consider speaking with your state health department to discuss your options.
There is no reason that a pregnant women go through 9 months of stressful labor to have to worry about insurance in the end. Make sure to reach out to any and all resources or even a friend or family member to help you find the insurance for the care you need.
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