Query: How does the Affordable Care Act cover preventive care and maternity coverage?
Context: Obamacare’s first major improvement for women took effect in August 2012. For plan years beginning on or after August 1, 2012, all non-grandfathered policies were required to provide coverage for eight women-specific categories of preventive care. And this was in addition to the broad range of preventive services for both men and women that were added with no cost-sharing to all non-grandfathered plans in September 2010.
But things got significantly better in January 2014 when all new policies had to be fully ACA-compliant. Maternity coverage is now included on all new major medical plans. Most employer-sponsored health plans already covered maternity care, under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act that had been enacted in 1978. But the nationwide requirement for maternity coverage on individual/family health plans was due entirely to the ACA. Also as a result of the ACA, premiums can no longer be based on gender. (Only age, geographic location, and tobacco use can be factored into premiums.)