A local news station began working on a story about health insurance plans covering breast pumps for nursing mothers. Recently, there’s been some national discussion about the Affordable Care Act and its provisions for lactation supplies–the bill doesn’t specify what type of pump the insurance plans should provide.
I had no idea this was an issue; my health insurance company provided a double-electric pump at no cost to me. It was even delivered to my home so I didn’t have to go pick it up! I sure do wish I’d had a chance to pick what brand of pump (because I would have picked one of these Ameda pumps–I used an Ameda with my first son and already had the gear. Plus it was a great pump!), but now I see I was lucky. Some mothers are only offered a manual pump.
When I learned this, I thought this was surely some sort of joke. I mean, why bother? Imagine trying to express milk for your baby every day during your work break with only a single-side manual pump? Who has that sort of time or hand strength?
When the reporter sought moms to chime in for the piece, I volunteered myself and my son Felix. I was pumped to be chosen for the news clip. (See what I did there? Pumped!)
I put on a skirt and combed my hair on one of my home days and welcomed the camera crew into my house. I really liked talking about the importance of a good pump for separation from my son, and I only work part-time. The crew asked if I minded nursing Felix on the air and so I got to latch him right on while they were filming.
Of course, since he’s 10 months old, he kept popping off, but they assured me they were not allowed to show my nipple on television. They were a little bummed I didn’t have any bags of expressed milk to show them. Oh well! I was very happy with the final edit of the interview, since I feel like they represented me fairly. Hope you think we did a good job supporting nursing moms!
Did your insurance cover the cost of an appropriate breast pump? Leave us a comment to share your experience!
I had the same experience as you — my health insurance plan completely covered the cost of a Medela Pump in Style Advanced and delivered it to my door. I had to get a prescription for it, but that took about five minutes at the Breastfeeding Center of Pittsburgh, and I had the pump the very next day.