Only 12% of current individual health insurance policies cover maternity care.

[pnwmom]

Until 2014. What an outrage.

This was why it was so ESSENTIAL that the ESSENTIAL benefits cover it.

Prior to the passage of the ACA, insurers could and did bar people from receiving benefits for preexisting conditions, including preexisting genetic conditions -- especially the XX chromosome, which leads to an increased risk of foreign cells growing in an organ and requiring careful medical care.

Now, whether you carry the genes putting you at increased risk for diabetes, or ALS, or Huntington's, or even pregnancy, your medical needs will be covered.

Long live Obamacare.

http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/features/insuring-your-health/2012/shingles-vaccinations-medicare-michelle-andrews-091112.aspx

A study published in March by the National Women's Law Center found that only 12 percent of policies sold on the individual market covered maternity care.

[elleng]

1. AMAZING!

[Niceguy1]

2. that's a single male purchases an individual policy

for himself he doesn't need maternity care. If he got his girl friend or partner pregnant it wouldn't cover for it anyways. So as an individual why should he have to pay?

[pnwmom]

3. A single female doesn't need coverage for Viagra or for

penile implants, and yet they will be covered, too.

The reason for this is because under Obamacare no human being is being required to pay more or less than another human being of the same age, no matter what their health state or genetic predispositions -- including a genetic predisposition to pregnancy.

[Niceguy1]

4. I was discussing the individual

.Market. I understand fhat a large group is needed to subsidize and make the program work. this costs more and the pain people are feeling should not be discounted.

[pnwmom]

5. So was I. The Exchange is for the individual market.

The whole premise of the ACA is that people will no longer have to pay more for ANY preexisting or genetic condition. And that includes conditions related to YOUR genes. Men have genes, too, that can cause them to have medical expenses. Younger men, for example, are much more predisposed to heart disease than women of the same age (the rates for women start to rise after menopause), and yet they won't have to pay more to get insurance covering heart disease.

[Niceguy1]

6. problem is even with subsidies it cost more

and the subsidies don't take in account for available income which is key. Sure people are getting more insurance better insurance but its it's costing more and that's going to be a real effect

[pnwmom]

7. They are paying more for real insurance as opposed to, in many cases,

insurance which they'd find out was practically worthless if they ever really needed it.

Try seeing how far a $50 dollar a day payment (from an actual policy that was in the news recently) will go for hospitalization costs.

[davidn3600]

8. Women cost more to the healthcare industry than men

It's partly due to nature and partly due to utilization. But women cost more money to the healthcare industry. That's why women used to get charged higher premiums.

So the healthcare law has now changed it so men and women pay equal premiums, but women will still use the system more than men, have more guaranteed benefits than men, will live longer than men, and yet men will still be forced to pay that maternity coverage that they will never be able to use.

Meanwhile men will still pay more money for car and life and accidental death insurance. Where are the feminists on this?

If it's sexist to charge more money for women on health insurance, then wouldnt it be sexist to charge men more than women for car insurance?

It shows that supporting women's rights doesn't always mean you support equal rights.

[pnwmom]

10. I think car insurance should be sold on the same basis.

I agree that the fact that men on the average cost the industry more for auto costs shouldn't mean that my husband and sons, who are excellent drivers, should have to pay more, too.

I think the whole system of rating by gender is wrong.

[Nye Bevan]

9. It was already illegal to discriminate based on genetic information.

Insurers were not even allowed to ask about genetic information (I get your point about the XX chromosome, though).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_Information_Nondiscrimination_Act

[pnwmom]

11. Yes, but the law wasn't working because women were still

being discriminated against because of a genetic predisposition.