The Obama administration should let women enroll in Obamacare-related plans if they get pregnant outside of the normal signup period, dozens of Democrats said.
Women who give birth or adopt a child can qualify for a special enrollment period, they noted, and maternity care must be covered under plans offered on the law’s exchanges.
“Millions of women have benefitted from this protection, and we appreciate your leadership in getting this done,” more than 50 Democrats, led by Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey, wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell in a letter dated Thursday. “However, many women are still vulnerable.”
Enrollment for the 2015 plan year closed Feb. 15, although the federal HealthCare.gov exchange and several state-run exchanges offered extra time to people who face to a tax penalty for failing to hold insurance.
Advocacy groups such as Planned Parenthood Action have urged the administration to let pregnant women sign up outside the normal period, too.
Women who cannot access coverage, the lawmakers wrote, “are forced to either forgo critical prenatal care or face significant out of pocket costs.”
Obamacare’s designation of maternity care as an essential benefit has stirred controversy in the past.
Republican critics of the law say men and older women who will never need the services still have to pay for it when they enroll under Obamacare, driving up their premiums.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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