Insuring High Risk Pregnancies

Given the steep costs of prenatal care and the intensive neonatal care that is likely to follow pregnancies with complications, should health insurers encourage moms with histories of complication to adopt? The cost of subsidizing a foreign adoption is just a drop in the bucket compared to long-term hospitalizaton, which is what many second and third time moms are willingly walking into. Wouldn't it make sense for insurers to help these parties to adopt?

You probably couldn't get moms to sign "no future pregnancy" contracts. They would likely be unenforceable. Yet, I would think that having adopted a child makes it somewhat less likely that a parent would then want to have another one, naturally or otherwise. Sure, many still would, but there are limits on what parents can manage. The prospect of easier adoption would probably make another difficult pregnancy a far less attractive alternative.

Of course, many moms with qualifying medical histories who never intended to conceive more children might avail themselves of this program. That would be money down the drain for insurers, but the program might still be a winning proposition in the long run.