I recently got approved for health insurance. The plan took effect a little under two weeks ago. Therefore, it surprised me when I got a large envelope in the mail from my insurer that contained information about changes to my health insurance policy. Already? Fortunately, it was good news!
My experience with health insurance companies, over my lifetime, has made me quite jaded and cynical. I am always expecting the worst to happen. Yesterday, I got mail that was the size of a manilla envelope. I knew it couldn’t be a bill, so I feared the worst.
Inside the envelope was a small booklet that was called “Important Changes to Your Health Care Coverage”. This freaked me out for several reasons. First of all, I just got this health insurance policy after a long, difficult, struggle to find affordable health insurance. Secondly, I assumed that what I was about to read was going to be about an increase to the cost of my premiums or a list of things that are no longer covered.
Instead, to my great surprise, the booklet contained a lot of good news! The portion that makes me the happiest is where it tells me that my plan now includes maternity coverage. This coverage will automatically begin on July 1, 2012. It will not change the cost of my premium at all. I will not have to purchase extra insurance in the form of a maternity rider, (which will raise the cost of a person’s premium), at all. The coverage is simply going to start on that date.
Why is my insurer being so generous? It is because they have to. I live in California. Here is what the booklet says:
“Starting July 1, 2012, we will be adding maternity benefits to your policy for those covered under the policy. We are doing this because California law now requires all individual policies to provide maternity benefits.”
I really like that they are doing it because of a state law, and not a federal law. There is the potential that the Supreme Court might decide to get rid of all, or portions of, the Affordable Care Act. If maternity coverage was a federal law, under that Act, then there would be the chance that it would disappear depending on what the Supreme Court decides. Instead, it is a state law which will still be here no matter what happens with the Affordable Care Act.
My husband and I have no interest in having children. I am using Implanon, an extremely effective source of birth control, to prevent becoming pregnant. Even so, I am greatly relieved to have maternity coverage in my health insurance plan, just in case things do not go as planned.
Image by janineomg on Flickr