Supporting Healthy Moms and Babies Act

This legislation, titled the "Supporting Healthy Moms and Babies Act," aims to significantly enhance access to maternal and newborn health care by amending existing federal health laws. Its primary goal is to ensure that comprehensive prenatal, childbirth, neonatal, perinatal, and postpartum services are covered as essential health benefits and are provided without any cost-sharing requirements for individuals. The bill specifically expands the definition of essential health benefits under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to include a wide range of services. These encompass ultrasounds, care for spontaneous pregnancy loss, and extensive delivery services such as anesthesiology and specialist consultations. It also mandates coverage for non-preventive postpartum care, including behavioral health services for conditions exacerbated by pregnancy, and defines the postpartum period as one year following the end of pregnancy. Furthermore, the bill extends behavioral health services to legal parents of a new child who do not physically give birth, covering them for one year after the child's birth. Crucially, the legislation prohibits group health plans and health insurance issuers from imposing any deductibles, copayments, or coinsurance for these newly defined and expanded maternity and newborn care benefits. These changes are designed to apply to plan years beginning on or after the act's enactment date, effectively integrating these provisions into the original framework of the Affordable Care Act.