Author archive for lhigashi

By Associated PressWASHINGTON — The health care law has opened up an unusual opportunity for some mothers-to-be to save on medical bills for childbirth....The ruling last summer opened the possibility for pregnant women to tap both benefit programs, said Dipti Singh, an attorney with the National Health Law Program…

By Carla K. JohnsonCHICAGO (AP) — Celeste Castillo, a Guatemalan immigrant, was invited to a news conference with Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius early last year to help promote enrollment in the country's new health insurance marketplaces....Castillo learned that $800 a month…

Numerous Affordable Care Act provisions specifically benefit women, including guarantee of maternity coverageBy Judy PeresMeg Finnegan thought she might never be able to afford to have a baby.Finnegan, who is self-employed and has a pre-existing medical condition, was having trouble finding health insurance at all, let alone a policy…

By Emily Spitzer"At least you have your health."The phrase has become cliché and even the object of parody, but there comes a point when we appreciate it in full sincerity. That point, of course, is when we face our own health issues -- even if temporary -- and appreciate…

By Erin MatsonIn August 2011, Liz Read-Katz was living in Texas, nearly 20 weeks pregnant, and was, in the words of the testimony she supplied to Planned Parenthood Advocates in Missouri, "ecstatic but scared as most soon-to-be parents are." Then her doctor told her that her blood work revealed she…