Reply #67: Colorado health insurance lobby vows to fight mandatory maternity coverage [View All]

[havocmom]

From 11/17/09 (that's BEFORE states can play fast and loose with an opt out loophole for HRC)

http://coloradoindependent.com/42121/colorado-health-insurance-lobby-vows-to-fight-mandatory-maternity-coverage

Insurance industry lobbyists have pulled back on the fight to charge women higher insurance rates across the board and have redrawn the battle lines, vowing to oppose legislation this coming sessions that would force insurers to offer individual plans that would cover maternity care.

The Colorado State Association of Health Underwriters (CSAHU) doesn’t plan to lobby against laws that would put an end to practices that charge women higher premiums for health insurance on the individual market, according to Dorothy Marshall, who handles legislative affairs for the group.

Yet the group will fight a bill that would require all health insurance plans on the individual market to include maternity.

...

According to a recent study by the National Women’s Law Center, women in Colorado who purchase insurance on the individual market currently pay up to 59 percent more than men. That’s for coverage that doesn’t include maternity care, since it is virtually impossible to find a plan that includes maternity care on the state’s individual market.

Just a little more to consider re current trends and what they might suggest for the future at state level for insurers and the pols they buy screwing consumers.

Opt out? Yeah trust your state pols. They ALWAYS have your back