Women who want to purchase health insurance if Obamacare is repealed and replaced may have to pay more than $1,000 a month for extra coverage, according to a report from the Congressional Budget Office.
That would occur in states that decide to undo the Obamacare rule that requires insurers to offer a wide range of medical services, including maternity care. For people who do not need the care, premiums would become less expensive, but women and families who need it would have to purchase a rider.
The report also raised the possibility that insurers might offer a low-cost rider that has less comprehensive coverage.
“Either type of rider would result in substantially higher out-of-pocket healthcare costs for pregnant women who purchased insurance in the nongroup market,” authors of the report wrote.
The estimates, released Wednesday, project that at least a sixth of the population would be affected by states that choose to waive the mandates, while another third of the population would be affected by states that choose to make some alterations to them. Not all of them are women or are of childbearing age, however.
The average cost of pregnancy care and delivery is about $17,000 for women with private insurance coverage, according to the report. Half of the births in the U.S. are paid for by Medicaid.
The report projects the estimate of passing the American Health Care Act, which passed in the House in early May. The finding was nestled within the report, which also projected that 23 million more people would be uninsured by 2026 and that the federal deficit would fall by $119 billion.
