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The short answer is possibly, because there are three insurance options you could qualify for, and two state provided assistance programs. The reason it’s hard to get health insurance when you are pregnant is that the insurance companies view being pregnant as a “Preexisting Condition,” and the costs associated with normal prenatal and delivery care are much higher than the combined monthly premiums for a California maternity health insurance plan. Plus, if there are any complications then the costs quickly climb at an exponential rate (a premature baby can have over $30,000 – $85,000 in medical costs in the first few weeks, and premature birth affects more than 1 in 10 California babies). Health insurance companies therefore will decline an application from a woman that is pregnant at the time of the application. So the mother to be needs to explore alternative strategies to get maternity coverage.

Insurance option number one is to join your company’s health insurance plan, or the group health insurance plan at your spouse’s company. Most group health plans offer maternity coverage, and are guaranteed issue – meaning that you can’t be declined when you apply to join the group plan, even if you are already pregnant. The difficulty with this option is that company plans have open enrollment windows during which you can add the plan. If your pregnancy is outside the window, you may have to wait for the next annual window before you can join the plan. Ask your company if a special enrollment period can be set up. If not, and the normal open enrollment happens within 6 months of the time you become pregnant, this options can work.

The second option applies to women that have their own health insurance plan that does not offer maternity care. In this case, you want to ask the insurance company if they will allow you to switch to a plan that offers maternity care. Blue Shield of California will allow this kind of transfer, but in California the other health insurance companies will not.

The third insurance option is to apply for the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan California (PCIP California) that was created by the Affordable Care Act and took effect on 7/1/10. This plan requires that you have been uninsured for a least 6 months, and been declined by a medical insurance company. This plan offers rich PPO benefits that will provide coverage for the prenatal care and delivery costs. The premiums for the plan will be less than what you would pay to get an equivalent medical insurance plan, and in many cases, this plan is one of the top 3 maternity insurance plans, in terms of minimizing your overall out of pocket expenses throughout the pregnancy.

If these options don’t solve the problem, then look to see if there are programs offered by your State’s Department of Insurance. Every state offers a version of the Medicaid program and many states offer other programs for women that do not qualify for Medicaid. The state of California offers the Medi-cal program (California’s version of Medicaid), and the Access for Infants and Mothers (AIM) program.

If you are pregnant and don’t have health insurance, then you should start with Medi-cal first to see if you qualify for coverage through their program. Medi-cal provides a zero-cost health plan for pregnant women that meet specific income limits. Medi-cal is intended to cover families and women that are below the federal poverty level. If you don’t qualify for Medi-cal then apply to the AIM program.

The AIM program is provided for middle-income families that don’t have health insurance and whose income is too high to qualify for Medi-cal. AIM provides low-cost health care coverage for pregnant women, and is also available to women with health insurance plans that have a maternity-only deductible or a co-payment of more than $500. Eligibility for AIM requires that a single mother have a household income between $2,453 and $3,679 (there is a table with income limits for families of various sizes at http://www.aim.ca.gov/Costs/Income_Guidelines.aspx). A word of caution about he AIM program, is that it is funded by the State of California, and if the funding is cut or the program fills up, then no additional mothers will be enrolled.

Although maternity health insurance is not usually available after you become pregnant, the high costs of not having coverage dictate that getting maternity coverage is a wise choice. There are options that can provide insurance coverage and non-insurance assistance. Joining a group health insurance plan through your company or your spouse’s company, transferring to a plan that offers maternity coverage, or applying for the PCP plan are your insurance options. The Medi-cal and AIM programs are non-insurance assistance options that are designed to provide maternity care to the uninsured mother. With these five choices there should be a solution for all mothers to be.

Tim Thompson writes about the insurance industry. Find more about California Maternity Health Insurance, by visiting SPF Insurance to get instantCalifornia Health Insurance Quotes for your needs.. This article, California Maternity Health Insurance for the Pregnant: Is It Even Possible? is available for free reprint.