Zero-cost prenatal and postpartum care now required in all health plans

What it does

This bill amends the Affordable Care Act to require health insurance plans to cover prenatal, childbirth, neonatal, perinatal, and postpartum care—including ultrasounds, delivery services, miscarriage care, and behavioral health services for up to one year after birth—with zero cost-sharing (no copays, coinsurance, or deductibles). The requirement applies to all group and individual health plans starting in plan years after enactment.

Why we flagged it

The bill's operative mechanism is a straightforward mandate requiring zero cost-sharing for a defined set of maternity and postpartum services across all health insurance plans. It is a public-health coverage expansion, not a tax provision, subsidy, or deregulation.

What the text implies

• Insurers and employers may respond by narrowing provider networks or increasing premiums elsewhere to offset the cost of zero cost-sharing for maternity care, potentially shifting costs to other services.
• The one-year postpartum period definition may create coverage cliffs at 12 months, leaving new parents without behavioral health coverage for postpartum depression or anxiety after that threshold.
• Behavioral health services for non-birthing legal parents (e.g., adoptive parents) are limited to one year, creating potential equity gaps compared to birthing parents' extended postpartum coverage.

Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.

Who it affects

Pregnant people and new parents gain access to comprehensive maternal and newborn care without out-of-pocket costs, removing a significant financial barrier to prenatal screening, delivery, and postpartum mental health care. The cost is distributed across the insurance system and employers, not concentrated on individuals.

Who stands to gain

• pregnant people and new parents (reduced out-of-pocket costs)
• healthcare providers (increased volume of covered services)
• health insurance plans (potential premium increases to offset zero cost-sharing)

Named in the bill

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), Public Health Service Act, Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), Internal Revenue Code, Health insurance issuers, Group health plans, Qualified health plans

Where it stands

3 cosponsors: 2 Democrats, 1 Republicans.

• May 21, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
• May 21, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

2 lobbying clients named this bill on 3 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $466,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 20 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.

More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.

Cindy Hyde-Smith, the sponsor, reported $1,334,320 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists — $326,000 on 2 filings
• Nemours Foundation - a Florida Not-for-profit Corporation — $140,000 on 1 filing

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.