The National Women's Law Center (NWLC) has filed federal discrimination complaints against five large employers, arguing that their exclusion of pregnancy coverage in health benefits for dependent children violates the Affordable Care Act's nondiscrimination provisions.
In administrative complaints filed with the Department of Health and Human Service's Office of the Civil Rights, the NWLC says that Auburn University, Gonzaga University, Indiana's Beacon Health System, the Ohio-based Battelle Memorial Institute and the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education all exclude maternity coverage for the dependent children of their employees.
The complaints are the first to allege a breach of the ACA's nondiscrimination provision, section 1557, in the area of dependent pregnancy coverage, and they argue that the exclusions amount to discrimination on the basis of sex.
The NWLC is asking the OCR to investigate the institutions' benefits policies and secure an end to the exclusions.
"Our message to every institution providing health insurance in the country is that treating pregnancy differently, including by omitting it from health insurance coverage, is sex discrimination pure and simple and as such violates the law," NWLC Co-President Marcia Greenberger said in a media release.
There are about 2.4 million pregnancies among women under the age of 25 every year, according to the NWLC, and the cost of an uncomplicated pregnancy is on average around $10,000. As more young women (like young men) stay on their parent's health plans until age 26, women's right advocates say ensuring maternity coverage available to those dependents is wholly in the spirit and intent of the ACA.
Small group and individual health plans will have to provide dependent maternity coverage as part of essential health benefit rules starting next year, while large employers, like Auburn and Gonzaga universities, are largely grandfathered into new market rules.
But the NWLC argues that since the two universities, along with the other institutions mentioned in the complaints, receive some form of federal funds, their exclusionary policies violate the ACA's nondiscrimination provision on the basis of treating dependent women differently than dependent men.
The ACA's prohibition against sex and other forms of discrimination requires that health plans of federally-funded institutions "provide comprehensive coverage to women, including full coverage for gynecological and maternity care, on the same terms as other benefits," the NWLC said. "Treating pregnancy differently also has long been considered sex discrimination under civil rights statutes such as Title IX and Title VII," which cover education and employment in the Civil Rights Act, the group said.
Pregnancy photo from Shutterstock.com.