A House bill that would require health insurers in Colorado to provide at least one policy that covers maternity care is being amended to make it stronger. The bill’s sponsors softened the original language last week in committee in order to make sure the bill moved onto the floor for debate.
According to sponsor Beth McCann, D-Denver, amendments to the bill would again make it mandatory that insurance policies cover contraception and that all policies for sale to women in the state provide maternity coverage.
“We are working on the amendments,” McCann wrote to the Colorado Independent in an email. “One will put the contraceptive care coverage back in; the other will go back to the original language of the bill– that all policies offered in the independent market must contain maternity coverage and pregnancy management coverage [without abortion coverage].”
McCann will introduce a third amendment to make clear the legislation does not seek to mandate abortion coverage.
The changes made to the bill last week in committee were criticized by proponents of the legislation who said insurance companies would respond simply by providing only one high-cost policy each that included maternity. Those policies would be unaffordable and force women to continue to buy policies that lacked basic maternity and reproductive health coverage.
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