Being Pregnant and Uninsured: The Obstacles
On October 20, 2009 in Health
Being pregnant is not meant to be simple. Being pregnant without health insurance is significantly more problematic. The frustrating thing is that no one wants to go uninsured if they have a choice about it, and often women become pregnant unintentionally, so the fair conclusion would be that insurance companies would be tolerant of uninsured pregnant women.
Wrong.
In reality Getting insurance for pregnant women is problematic. Why? The official reason is because the pregnancy is viewed as a preexisting condition, a reason that causes countless people to struggle to obtain health coverage (for example, if someone has Alzheimer, getting health insurance and does not possess insurance might prove to be virtually impossible as well).
On one hand, it is possible to understand the insurance company’s view point: nine months of pregnancy can cost quite a fortune: 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 regulations helping women obtain health coverage if they find out they are pregnant and do not possess health insurance.
Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case - there is no federal law requiring health insurance providers to assist women in this situation. Many women would not even ask for a low cost medical insurance but would settle for whatever they can 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 provide several articles that explain the options available for women in this condition as well as offer links to one such a program. Hopefully, you, the reader, possess health insurance and pregnant - but if you are, this site can really help you.