The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies breastfeed until they are at least one year-old. However, about one out of 3 Utah mothers have already stopped breastfeeding 2-6 months postpartum and racial and ethnic minority groups have even lower breastfeeding rates.
The Affordable Care Act law which is now in place has potential to
address many of the barriers to breastfeeding that minority Utahns have described
to us, such as:
·
Problems
balancing breastfeeding and employment
·
Lack of
professional help to address pain and latching problems
·
Expense of
breast pumps
Breastfeeding Laws in the Affordable Care Act
Expressing Milk at the Workplace
Break Time for Pumping Milk
·
Employers must allow breastfeeding employees to
take breaks to pump breast milk.
·
Employers must accommodate a reasonable amount
of break time as frequently as needed by the nursing mother. The frequency of
breaks needed to express milk as well as the duration of each break will likely
vary.
·
These federal protections last until the
employee’s baby is one year-old.
Space for Pumping Milk
·
Employers must provide breastfeeding employees
with a private location to pump, other than the bathroom.
·
Requiring employees to pump in the bathroom is
not allowed by the law.
·
Creating a designated room to express milk is
one way to comply with the law. A space
that is used for other purposes, such as an office, may also meet this
requirement as long as it is available whenever the nursing mom needs it, shielded
from view and free from any intrusion from co-workers and the public.
Workplace Exemptions
·
Employers with fewer than 50 employees may be
eligible for an exemption if they can demonstrate that compliance causes undue
hardship. Otherwise, they are required
to comply.
·
Employees who are exempt from Fair Labor
Standards Act are not covered by this law.
Health Insurance Coverage for Breastfeeding Support and Supplies
Lactation Counseling
·
Health plans must cover comprehensive lactation
support and counseling from trained providers without co-pays.
Breast Pumps
·
Health plans must cover rental or purchase of breast
pumps without co-pays.
- Rental pumps are hospital-grade electric machines like this one.
- They are more powerful than a personal pump, collecting milk more quickly and effectively than personal pumps.
- It is actually only the motor that is shared. Each mother must buy her own attachments, which are the parts of the pump that touch a mother’s breasts and milk. Hospital-grade pumps are designed to prevent contamination across multiple users.
o
Some insurers are giving mothers the option of
buying a personal pump instead of renting a hospital-grade pump.
- Personal pumps may be manual or powered by electricity or batteries.
- Manual pumps do not require batteries or electricity, but many women find it difficult to use them.
- Electric and battery-powered pumps are more efficient than manual pumps, but less so than hospital-grade pumps. They are not designed to last as long as hospital-grade pumps and will wear out over time. However, they are more portable than hospital-grade pumps.
Health Insurance Exemptions
·
Some health plans that existed prior to health
reform are “grandfathered” and not required to offer these breastfeeding
supplies and services.
·
Health insurance plans vary in the types of
pumps and lactation counseling offered.
Many health plans have rules about preferred providers and distributors
or other limitations. Check with your
health plan for details about your coverage.
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