Insurance Still Doesn't Cover Childbirth For Some Young Women

Although the federal government recently clarified that most insurance plans must cover prenatal care as a preventive service without charging women anything out of pocket, it didn't address a crucial and much pricier gap in some young women's coverage: labor and delivery costs.

Perhaps that shouldn't come as a surprise.

Insurers and some employers have long tried to sidestep paying for maternity care, which includes prenatal, delivery and postpartum services. Individual plans typically refused to pay for pregnancy-related services until the Affordable Care Act established that maternity and newborn care are both essential health benefits that must be included in individual and small group coverage.

Large employers that provide health insurance are required to cover maternity care for employees and their spouses under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978. But that protection doesn't extend to dependent children, even though under the health law, adult children can now stay on their parents' plans until they turn 26.

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