A bipartisan group of legislators and advocates are urging passage of a bill that would allow all pregnant women in Connecticut access to insurance coverage for pre- and post-natal care.
If a pregnant woman is enrolled in Medicaid, or is getting insurance through the Affordable Care Act, maternity care is covered. However, there is a small population of women who are in a bind -- they either have no insurance, or find that their current insurance does not cover pre-natal care and their pregnancy does not coincide with the ACA enrollment period.
Senate Bill 877 would allow those women to immediately enroll in a plan, after being certified as pregnant by a doctor. Republican and Democratic leaders in the state Senate call this a common sense solution, and the bill has the support of of women advocacy groups.
Christine Palm of the Connecticut Commission on Women, Children and Seniors said the measure not only insures healthy babies, but healthy mothers as well.
"Post-partum depression and anxiety are often discovered and screened," she said. "It's a very real problem for a lot of women, and physicians and clinicians can pick up on this during pre-natal care -- the warning signs, and certainly during post-natal care."
The bill passed out of the legislature's Insurance and Real Estate Committee with bipartisan support, and is now scheduled for a vote in the Senate.
