Document Type
Working Paper
Publication Date
8-13-2015
SSRN Discipline
Legal Scholarship Network; Social Insurance Research Network; Law & Society eJournals; Law & Society: Private Law eJournals; Legal Anthropology eJournals; LSN Subject Matter eJournals; AARN Subject Matter eJournals; Health Economics Network; MedRN Subject Matter eJournals; Anthropology & Archaeology Research Network; Medical Research Network; Health Law eJournals
Abstract
In the last ten to twenty years health insurance companies across the United States have begun to deny women maternity benefits to which they would otherwise be entitled based on the fact that they are acting as surrogate mothers Despite the growing prevalence of the practice of denying benefits in this manner little attention has been paid to the legality of these exclusions The few courts that have addressed the issue have all come to contrary results and have all based their decisions in different bodies of law This paper chronicles the uneasy relationship between health insurance companies and surrogate mothers discusses the arguments both for and against the appropriateness of surrogacy exclusions and analyzes the various legal frameworks with which to determine whether surrogate exclusions are legal Ultimately the paper concludes that a number of state and federal statutesincluding the Pregnancy Discrimination Act the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Actmay prove useful in challenging the legality of these exclusions
Recommended Citation
Meghan Boone,
It's Only Covered If You Keep It: The Legality of Surrogate Pregnancy Exclusions in Health Insurance Policies,
(2015).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.ua.edu/fac_working_papers/353