Opposition is Short-sighted, Ignores Real Pay Off in Healthy Families
(Long Island, NY) Family Planning Advocates of New York State today rejected claims from the Business Council of New York and The Health Plan Association in today’s Capital Pro article “Insurers, business council assail pregnancy insurance bill” which asserted that allowing pregnant women to purchase health insurance outside the Affordable Care Act’s enrollment period would be too costly for insurers and employers.
Legislation introduced by State Senator Kemp Hannon (S.5548), State Senator Liz Krueger (S.4639) and Assemblymember Aravella Simotas (A.6750), would add pregnancy to the list of “qualifying events” that allow individuals to purchase insurance on the health exchange outside the regular enrollment period. Currently, the list includes marriage, the birth of a child, divorce and becoming a U.S. citizen.
“It is good public health policy to ensure women have early access to prenatal care. Not allowing pregnant women to purchase health insurance outside of an open enrollment period is short-sighted and has negative implications for families, employers and insurers as it puts women at risk when they need medical care the most,” said Carol Blowers, interim CEO of Family Planning Advocates of New York State. “This is not a difficult equation – purchasing insurance helps connect women to proper medical care resulting in a lifetime of better health for themselves and their families. Pregnancy is not an on-going illness, it is a medical event. Anyone advocating against expanding the ability of pregnant women to obtain health care coverage is willfully ignoring the real risks that lack of coverage means for women, families and our state.”
Infants born to mothers who had little or no prenatal care in the first trimester have a low birth weight rate that is three times higher than that of infants born to mothers who received the recommended prenatal care, and have a rate of infant mortality rate that is five times higher according to a 2015 report by the New York City Comptroller. These are statistics that must not be ignored – it is vital that pregnant women are able to access the prenatal care they need to keep themselves healthy and to give birth to a healthy child.
In addition to the health benefits of allowing pregnancy to exist as a qualifying event, it is likely that there would be a significant financial benefit as well. One study by the American Board of Family Medicine found that any level of prenatal care for adolescent mothers would save the U.S. up to $3,242 per person in care costs for low-weight newborns.
These gains clearly offset the short-sighted opposition offered today by the Business Council of New York State and the Health Plan Association which objected to the bill based on potential costs to insurers.
“Opposition to allowing pregnant women to purchase needed health insurance coverage based on perceived short-term costs ignores the reality of long-term health care savings for women and their families,” said Blowers, interim CEO of Family Planning Advocates of New York State. “Preventing women from purchasing health care now does not translate into overall cost-savings.”
Family Planning Advocates of New York State is a non-profit, statewide organization dedicated to protecting and expanding access to a full range of reproductive health care services. It represents New York’s Planned Parenthood affiliates and other family planning centers, as well as hundreds of organizations and thousands of individual members.
