Many new moms unaware of breastfeeding health insurance benefits
NEW YORK (WABC) -- New mothers are spending hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars on breastfeeding products and counseling that they don't have to.
It's all free but many people simply don't know it.
Anything having to do with breastfeeding is covered by medical insurance as part of the Affordable Care Act - Obamacare - the law that passed in 2010.
According to a recent survey by Wakefield Research, commissioned by Byram Healthcare, most parents do not know that breast pumps, supplies, and lactation consultants should all be paid for by one's insurance. This represents potentially hundreds of dollars out of pocket.
Medical device companies can, at no cost to mothers, file all of the paperwork to receive all of these benefits and send the pump prior to the baby's birth.
Again this is all free by law, and most people have no idea.
We spoke with one new mother named Christina, who said her friends who are new moms did not know about this, and neither did her doctors.
In order to receive the benefit, however, one must go online or call a medical device provider.
Another provision in the Affordable Care Act is the mandate that an employer must make a clean room, not a bathroom, available for working mothers to use to pump. Most also did not know about this law.
Wednesday is the start of World Breastfeeding Week and all of August is National Breastfeeding Month in the US.
For more information about breastfeeding coverage under the ACA, click here.
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