This bill would add prenatal, childbirth, neonatal, perinatal, and postpartum care to the list of essential health benefits in the Affordable Care Act. It names specific services that must be covered, such as ultrasounds, care for spontaneous miscarriage, delivery services (including anesthesiology and fetal monitoring), and certain postpartum behavioral health services. The bill defines postpartum as the one-year period after pregnancy ends. It also says that group and individual plans, and employer plans covered by ERISA, must not charge cost-sharing (deductibles, copays, or coinsurance) for these maternity and newborn services. The rule applies to plan years that begin on or after the law is enacted and directs that the changes be treated as if they were included when the Affordable Care Act was enacted.
If this becomes law and you have a group or individual health plan covered by the rules in the bill, the listed prenatal, delivery, newborn, and postpartum services must be covered and cannot have cost-sharing. The law would apply to nonemployer and employer plans governed by ERISA, and to plan years starting after enactment.
No publicly available information.
The bill text and sponsor list show the goal is to require comprehensive maternity and newborn coverage and to remove cost-sharing for those services. The bill was introduced by Rep. Jared Golden and multiple cosponsors and was referred to relevant House committees on June 5, 2025.
No publicly available information.