About 13% of pregnant women in the United States do not have any coverage. Because of this, women end up not going to prenatal checkups. If you are one of those, there are actually some things you must know that might help you.
The first option you should look into is Medicaid. Contact you local an Resources Department or Social Services to see if you qualify for Medicaid. Make sure that you keep all medical receipts while waiting for new from Medicaid since they will reimburse you if you are approved.
If you do not qualify for Medicaid, the next step is to try to get group insurance. Note that even if you are pregnant, under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, health insurers cannot consider pregnancy a preexisting condition. This means that they cannot deny you coverage because of the fact, however, if you are well into your pregnancy the waiting period to be covered due to other pre-existing conditions might rule this out for you since it might even exceed the date of delivery.
In this case, the best thing to do is contact your local hospital to ask for different packages and payment plans. Many hospitals offer packages wherein all pre-natal visits, tests, procedures, delivery charges, and post-natal visits are included for a much reduced cost.