Maternity Coverage in Florida
Monday, December 15th, 2008Women of child-bearing age (19 to 55 years old) pay more for health insurance than men, says Linda A. Firestone, Ph.D in the Sun-Sentinel. A typical woman’s policy includes maternity coverage, which accounts for the gender disparity in insurance rates. Since the majority of American adult women eventually have children, health insurance with maternity coverage makes sense for them–especially if there are pregnancy or birth complications.
Group health insurance plans (for example, those provided by employers) in Florida do not allow women to opt out of maternity coverage. If a woman does not plan to have children, she can choose to buy one of many individual health plans, which allow her to opt out of maternity coverage. In fact, many insurance providers (such as Humana), no longer offer maternity coverage in their plans. Insurance specialist Larry Wides says the cost savings from a group plan tend to cancel out the reduced premiums resulting from the elimination of maternity coverage.

As promised we will be breaking the
Revamping the maligned US health care system was a focal point of President-elect Barack Obama’s campaign, and he will now be tasked with making good on that promise amid a significant economic downturn.
There have been several articles published within the last week, most notably in the New York Times regarding health insurance rates paid by women compared to rates paid by men. The article used health insurance quote data gathered from such health insurance companies as Humana, Aetna, and Wellpoint as well as
Humana recently announced the introduction of their portfiolio of
Bloomberg.com reports that premiums for medicare drug coverage will rise more than 20% on average from 2008 to 2009. This expected rate increase is on the heals of another 20%+ rate increase from 2007 to 2008.










