Repeal of health law could mean that women pay more for less

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

From a return to higher premiums based on gender, to gaps in coverage for birth control and breast pumps, experts say women could end up paying more for less if the Obama-era health care law is repealed.

The 2010 law ended a common industry practice of charging women more than men for policies purchased directly from an insurer. It made maternity and newborn care a required benefit for individual health plans. And it set a list of preventive services to be provided at no extra cost to women, including birth control and breast pumps used by nursing mothers. That preventive care requirement also applies to most employer plans.

Nearly half of pregnancies are unplanned, and prior to “Obamacare” some women would get pregnant only to learn that their insurance did not cover maternity and delivery, said Dr. John Meigs, a longtime family practitioner in the small town of Centerville, Alabama.

“A lot of women were delaying their prenatal care until they could figure out what to do,” said Meigs, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Democrats are keying in on the issue as they try to block or blunt the GOP drive to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Women are widely seen as having benefited from the health law. In a recent AP-NORC poll, 44 percent said they thought women were better off as a result of the law, while only 24 percent said women were worse off.

Nashville-based singer Rachel Potter worries about what it could mean for her. She says she was lucky to be covered under the ACA when she unexpectedly became pregnant last year.

Bleeding early on and other complications sent her to the doctor’s office frequently.

“We were able to monitor the pregnancy really closely,” said Potter. “I was able to go to an amazing OB-GYN, and I wouldn’t have had access to that care if I had not been on this insurance.” Her son Jude was born in December and is already on the road with her.

Potter’s medical bill came to more than $40,000, but she only paid about $2,000 of that.

She’s now thinking about getting a long-lasting form of birth control while her insurer is still required to cover it at no charge to her.