Supporting Healthy Moms and Babies Act

Key Points

• This bill eliminates all out-of-pocket costs for pregnancy and birth-related care under private health insurance plans. Copays, deductibles, and other cost-sharing would be banned for prenatal checkups, ultrasounds, labor and delivery, and related services like anesthesiology and fetal monitoring.
• The bill defines 'postpartum' as one full year after pregnancy ends, during which insurance must cover care for conditions caused or worsened by pregnancy, like diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity, at no cost to the patient.
• Mental health services for new parents are included as a covered benefit. Both the person who gave birth and any legal parent who did not physically give birth are entitled to behavioral health services for one year after the child is born.
• Coverage for miscarriage and pregnancy loss is explicitly required. The bill mandates that insurance plans cover services related to spontaneous pregnancy loss without cost-sharing.
• The bill applies broadly across employer-sponsored plans, individual market plans, and self-insured employer plans by amending the Public Health Service Act, ERISA, and the Internal Revenue Code. It takes effect for plan years starting on or after the date the bill is signed into law.