Sponsors (29)
The bill broadly expands and standardizes no-cost maternity, postpartum, and certain parental behavioral-health benefits—improving access and reducing out-of-pocket costs for birthing people and families—while likely increasing insurer and employer costs that may raise premiums, impose administrative burdens, and create some legal uncertainty.
Pregnant people (including low-income and those with chronic conditions) receive guaranteed, comprehensive prenatal, delivery, neonatal, perinatal, and one-year postpartum coverage with cost-sharing removed beginning the first plan year after enactment, increasing access to maternal and newborn care.
New parents who did not give birth (e.g., adoptive or gestational parents) gain one year of covered behavioral health care, supporting parental mental health and family stability.
Low-income insured people face lower out-of-pocket costs for pregnancy-related services, improving affordability and access to necessary maternal and newborn care.
Insurers and employers will likely face higher plan costs to cover expanded maternity and postpartum benefits, which is likely to raise premiums or cost-sharing for some enrollees and increase taxpayer exposure in public plans.
Removing cost-sharing for pregnancy-related services may increase utilization and overall health spending, costs that could be passed indirectly to consumers through higher premiums or reduced benefits elsewhere.
Smaller employers and self-funded plans will face increased compliance, administrative, and potential spending burdens to redesign plans and cover new no-cost maternal services.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Requires comprehensive maternity, newborn, perinatal, and one-year postpartum care across ACA, group, and individual plans and bans cost-sharing for these benefits.
Introduced June 5, 2025 by Jared Golden · Last progress June 5, 2025
Requires health plans to cover a full set of maternity, newborn, perinatal, and postpartum services as part of essential health benefits and extends that requirement across group and individual plans (including ERISA and tax-code regulated plans). It also defines postpartum as the one-year period after pregnancy ends and bans cost-sharing for the mandated maternity and newborn benefits for plan years beginning on or after enactment.