Durbin, Democrats: Additional Measures Needed To Help Pregnant Women Get Health Care Coverage

Press Release

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and 36 Democratic Senators wrote a letter to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell, encouraging her to further improve women's access to health care under the Affordable Care Act by instituting a special open enrollment period for women to enroll in health coverage when they find out they are pregnant.

"We write to support your efforts to ensure that women have full access to the comprehensive, affordable health insurance coverage guaranteed by the Affordable Care Act," the Senators wrote in the letter. "…if a woman becomes pregnant at a time outside of the Open Enrollment period and is uninsured, or enrolled in a grandfathered plan that does not cover maternity services, then she will not be able to access coverage for maternity care. Without access to maternity care coverage, these women are forced to either forgo this critical care or face significant out of pocket costs….We encourage you to….create a special enrollment period to maximize women's access to coverage."

In the letter, Durbin and Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Bob Casey (D-PA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Chris Coons (D-DE), Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Ed Markey (D-MA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Jon Tester (D-MT), Al Franken (D-MN), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Jack Reed (D-RI), and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) urged Secretary Burwell to address a gap in coverage that could leave a woman uninsured and without access to maternity care if she becomes pregnant at a time outside of the Open Enrollment period. Pregnancy is an important time in a woman's life, and maternal mortality rates are three to four times higher for women who receive no prenatal care compared to women that do, which makes health coverage critical during this time.

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