A TRUSTED INDEPENDENT HEALTH INSURANCE GUIDE SINCE 1999.
Call our agency partners 866-553-3223
Call our agency partners 866-553-3223

Medicare & Medicaid

Medicare & Medicaid

Featured

Featured
What are the deadlines for the ACA’s open enrollment period?
A list of the open enrollment deadlines for enrollment in 2025 ACA-compliant health insurance in every state. Open enrollment runs from November 1 to January 15 in most states, but some state-run exchanges have different schedules.

Featured

Featured
Will you receive an ACA premium subsidy?
See if you're eligible for the Affordable Care Act's premium tax credits (premium subsidies), how subsidies are calculated, and why they are more robust than they used to be.

Guide to women’s health insurance

women running during a fall day

women running during a fall day

Women’s health coverage

For women in the U.S., access to affordable coverage in the individual health insurance market has improved markedly over the past decade – due in large part to coverage improvements and consumer protections delivered by the Affordable Care Act.

Prior to the ACA’s implementation, which began mostly in 2014, women faced many barriers to coverage:

  • Previously, more than half of individual plans charged higher premiums for a 40-year-old female non-smoker than for a 40-year-old male smoker – for the exact same coverage.
  • More than 90% of individual health plans didn’t provide any routine maternity benefits.
  • In all but five states, being pregnant was a pre-existing condition that prevented a woman from purchasing individual health insurance.
  • Many individual health plans offered no contraceptive coverage.
  • Coverage for women’s preventive care varied considerably from one state to another.

Suggested reading:

We hope you’ll use this guide to get a clearer understanding of how coverage has improved – and what you should expect for coverage of women’s healthcare when you’re selecting a health plan.

Women's health coverage

background-image image-desktop image-mobile

Preventive care for women under the Affordable Care Act (ACA)

Prior to implementation of the Affordable Care Act, coverage of women’s preventive care varied considerable from state to state. But beginning in August 2012, all health plans (other than grandfathered health plans) were required to provide coverage for certain women-specific categories of preventive care:

  • Well-woman visits
  • Gestational diabetes screening
  • HPV testing
  • Screening and counseling for domestic violence
  • HIV testing and counseling for sexually transmitted infections
  • Breastfeeding supplies
  • Contraception and family planning counseling

(Note that additional preventive care mandates, including preventive care for children and all adults as well as additional woman-specific preventive care, took effect in 2014.)

Recent news

Access to women’s health care services was greatly expanded under the ACA. This was due not just to the ACA’s coverage mandates (for things like preventive care and maternity care), but also to the fact that the ACA resulted in far more women having health coverage. Medicaid expansion, the employer mandate, and access to subsidized coverage in the health insurance exchange/marketplace have all played a role in this.

But women’s health coverage and care continue to be controversial topics, and the rules continue to evolve over time.


tab-content-image-mobile
tab-content-image
tab-content-image-mobile
tab-content-image
tab-content-image-mobile
tab-content-image
tab-content-image-mobile
tab-content-image


Frequently asked questions about women's health coverage

Frequently asked questions about women's health coverage

Does the ACA require infertility treatment to be covered by health insurance?

Infertility treatment is not an essential health benefit under the ACA. However, 19 states have laws that require at least some coverage for infertility treatment on state-regulated health plans (which include health plans that individuals and businesses purchase from an insurance company).

Is contraception covered by health insurance?

Under the ACA’s rules, health plans effective on or after August 1, 2012 are required to provide all FDA-approved contraceptive methods for women, including sterilization, with no cost-sharing. This means that at least one version of every type of contraceptive is covered at no cost to a patient.

But plan issuers with moral or religious objections can get an exemption from the contraceptive coverage mandate. And although the Obama administration created an accommodation that would allow women on exempt plans to obtain zero-cost contraception, the Trump administration made that accommodation optional for plan issuers.

However, the Biden administration proposed a rule change in 2023 that would eliminate the moral objection pathway for an exemption, and that would also ensure access to zero-cost contraception even if a woman is covered by a plan that has a religious exemption.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued FAQs in 2022 and 2024 clarifying a variety of details about contraceptive coverage. They note, for example, that health plans must fully cover necessary services that go along with tubal ligation, such as anesthesia, and that emergency contraception must be covered just like other forms of contraception.

How can I find a health plan that covers maternity care?

The ACA mandates that maternity coverage is included on all ACA-compliant individual and small group health plans nationwide.

And thanks to the ACA, being pregnant is no longer considered a pre-existing condition, which means pregnant women (and expectant fathers) can buy health insurance in the individual market in every state — assuming they are applying during open enrollment or have a qualifying event that allows them to enroll.

Do ACA health plans coverage abortion?

Whether your ACA plan covers abortion depends on the state where you live. In more than half of the states, health plans sold through the marketplace are not allowed to cover abortions except for circumstances involving rape, incest, or the mother’s life being in danger. However, eight states require all state-regulated health plans to cover abortion services.

image image

Discuss your coverage needs with our agency partners.

Call 866-264-9243