Being Pregnant and Uninsured: The Challenges
Being pregnant is not meant to be simple. Being pregnant without insurance is significantly more problematic. The frustrating thing is that no one wants to be uninsured if she has a choice about it, and often women become pregnant by accident, so the fair conclusion should be that health insurance providers would be understanding of uninsured pregnant women.
Wrong.
In reality Obtaining insurance for pregnant women is hard. Why? The official explanation is because the pregnancy is treated as a pre-existing condition, a reason that causes many people to struggle to get health coverage (i.e. if someone has Alzheimer, getting health coverage and does not possess insurance might prove to be virtually impossible as well).
On one hand, it is easy to understand the insurance company’s view point: nine months of pregnancy can cost quite a lot: visits to the doctor, standard screenings, the possibility of complications and not to mention the delivery itself. However, pregnancy is a natural fact of life, and in this day and age we should expect that there be regulations assisting women get health insurance if they find out they are pregnant and do not possess health insurance.
Unfortunately, this is not the case - there is no law requiring insurance companies to help women in this situation. Many women would not even ask for a low cost medical insurance but would compromise 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) - basically, these are sufficient.
In our site, The Guide to Health, we offer a couple of articles that explain the alternatives 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.