Pregnancy As a Recognized Event for Nondiscriminatory Treatment (PARENT) Act.

Senator Wahab's PARENT Act would establish pregnancy as a qualifying event for health insurance enrollment while prohibiting insurers from discriminating against enrollees based on pregnancy circumstances, including gestational carrier status. The legislation applies to health care service plans and disability insurance policies issued, amended, or renewed after January 1, 2026.

The bill prohibits insurers from denying or limiting maternity services, increasing costs, or reducing coverage based on conception circumstances. Specifically, plans may not deny coverage to pregnant individuals or their newborns, raise premiums or cost-sharing, penalize providers, or otherwise discriminate against enrollees, newborns, or health care providers involved in pregnancy-related care. These protections extend to individuals acting as gestational carriers.

Under the legislation, pregnancy becomes a triggering event allowing individuals to enroll in or change health plans outside standard enrollment periods. This provision applies to the pregnant individual, their dependents, and those to whom the pregnant person is a dependent. The bill defines maternity services to include prenatal care, ambulatory care, treatment of pregnancy complications, neonatal care, and inpatient hospital services including labor, delivery and postpartum care.

The measure makes willful violations by health plans a criminal offense under state law. While this creates a state-mandated local enforcement program, the legislation specifies that no state reimbursement is required for local agencies or school districts to implement these provisions.