Being pregnant is never simple. Being pregnant without insurance is significantly more problematic. The frustrating thing is that no one wants to go 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 tolerant of uninsured pregnant women.
Wrong.
In reality Obtaining insurance for pregnant women is very hard. Why? The ‘formal’ explanation is because the pregnancy is viewed as a preexisting condition, a reason that causes many people to struggle to obtain health coverage (i.e. if someone has AIDS, getting health insurance and does not possess insurance might prove to be very hard as well).
On one hand, it is possible to understand the health provider’s view point: nine months of pregnancy can cost quite a fortune: visits to the physician, standard screenings, the possibility of complications and not to mention the delivery itself. However, pregnancy is a natural condition, and in this day and age we should expect that there be regulations assisting women obtain health coverage if they find out they are pregnant and are uninsured.
Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case – there is no federal law requiring insurance companies to assist women in this situation. Many women would not even request for a low cost medical insurance but would settle for whatever they 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) – essentially, these are sufficient.
In our site, The Guide to Health, we provide several articles that explain the options available for women in this situation as well as offer links to one such a program. Hopefully, you, the reader, are not uninsured and pregnant – but if you are, this site can really help you.