How the Healthcare Reform Bill Can Affect Pregnant and TTC Couples

If you live in the US, you've probably heard a lot of buzz about the Healthcare Reform Bill. I don't know about you, but my legal lingo skills fall flat and I don't quite trust anything I read on the net that doesn't provide the source documentation... which seems like just about everything. I've been having a hard time figuring out exactly how this bill will affect the TTC (trying to conceive) community and parents-to-be, but I've gathered up some info that I hope will help clarify the changes. Here's a summary of any number of ways the health care bill might affect you, your family, and your children:


- Requires the Secretary to establish a Pregnancy Assistance Fund for grants to states to assist pregnant and parenting teens and women.  (source)


- Amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to require employers to provide a reasonable break time and a suitable place, other than a bathroom, for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child. Excludes an employer with less than 50 employees if such requirements would impose an undue hardship. (source)


-Requires a health plan that provides dependent coverage of children to make such coverage available for an unmarried, adult child until the child turns 26 years of age. (source)


- Encourages the Secretary to continue activities on postpartum depression or postpartum psychosis, including research to expand the understanding of their causes and treatment. (source)


-Reauthorizes appropriations for preventive health service programs to immunize children and adults against vaccine-preventable diseases without charge. (source)


- Reauthorizes appropriations for FY2010-FY2014 for the expansion and improvement of emergency medical services for children who need treatment for trauma or critical care. (source)


-Prohibits a health insurance issuer offering individual coverage from imposing a preexisting condition exclusion or a waiting period or otherwise discriminating against a woman on the basis that she is pregnant. (source)


If you're a smoker:
 - Provides for Medicaid coverage of counseling and pharmacotherapy for cessation of tobacco use by pregnant women. (source)


If you're considering adoption:
- Increases from $10,000 to $13,170 the dollar limitation on: (1) the tax credit for adoption expenses; and (2) the tax exclusion for employer-provided adoption assistance. (source)


If your child is born with a disability:
- Families won't be turned down (by insurance companies) if a parent or child has a pre-existing disability or other health condition (source)


If you're on Medicaid:
- Requires Medicaid coverage of: (1) freestanding birth center services; and (2) concurrent care for children receiving hospice care. (source)


Note: Most of this information was taken from a summary of the bill itself, the link to which I found through www.senate.gov  (here).  My goal in this was to give a no-frills, broad picture of how the bill is going to affect pregnant and trying to conceive people.  If you have any further information (with a source, preferably) please, please, please! comment or shoot me an email - spread the knowledge!


I hope my little summary helps!