Amanda Gans knew a breast pump would be a necessity when her daughter, Addison, was born in May 2012. The 25-year-old Orlando resident was holding down two jobs and going to college, so physically nursing her newborn would simply not always be feasible. However, Gans and her husband couldn’t afford the price tag of a double electric breast pump, which can run upwards of $300. After researching the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as “Obamacare,” Gans discovered the policy that now requires insurance companies to cover the cost of breast pumps for expectant mothers. “Being an on-the-go mom, I needed all the accessories,” Gans said. “All they (insurance provider) needed was a prescription from my doctor for the exact pump.”

The prescription is key, advises Fino Randazzo, owner of Florida Home Health, a medical supply company based in Orlando that has shipped between 300 to 400 breast pumps per month since the ACA was signed into law in August 2012. “The good part about this is that pretty much any woman who is pregnant can get one,” Randazzo said. “However, the insurance companies aren’t giving the moms a choice and they’re getting a lot of push-back.” The law doesn’t specify which type of breast pump the privately insured client is eligible for and some insurance companies are only permitting a manual pump, one rented from a hospital, or a specific brand.

“A lot of it depends on the company,” Randazzo said. “They kind of took the choice of pump away, but it’s a work in progress.” With Florida Home Health, representatives like Randazzo work with the mother to fulfill her breastfeeding needs. “I ask the mom questions, tell her about the accessories, like different size breast shields or the car adapter,” Randazzo explains. “We’re going beyond trying to sell a product. It’s about caring for the mother and her needs.”

Gans initially ran into some snags with her insurance company when trying to obtain a pump. “It was a whole ordeal,” she recalls, adding that the insurance company originally told her it would take at least 30 days just to process her request. “I wouldn’t take no for an answer. It didn’t make sense to me. We pay a high premium.” Instead, Gans stressed to the insurance company that a breast pump was “critical” to the wellbeing of her daughter. “I kept stressing to them that my daughter could arrive at any time and I needed to adequately feed her.”

Dealing with the insurance company took so long that Gans thought she would have to rent a pump from a hospital or borrow one from a friend until the approval came through. Randazzo estimates that a breast pump approval can take between 30 to 60 days and advises expectant mothers to plan accordingly to ensure they receive their equipment before their due date. Luckily for Gans, she did in fact receive her double electric breast pump just before Addison’s birth.

“I think if I hadn’t been as persistent, it would have taken months,” Gans said, who acknowledges that purchasing the pump herself would have taken even longer because she would have needed to save up money for the purchase. “You only get so much from a baby shower,” she said. The cost of breast pumps, according to Randazzo, may be a contributing reason as to why many moms have been reluctant to breastfeed their babies in the past, but he thinks the new law will help reverse that trend. He says, “Why not use what mothers already produce? If the insurance company is willing to buy it (pump) for you, it gives you more of an incentive to try breastfeeding rather than being forced to buy a $300 pump.”

This policy applies to all expectant mothers insured under private insurance companies. It does not apply to women on Medicaid or WIC benefits. This portion of the law was created to encourage women to breastfeed their babies. According to the World Health Organization, babies should be exclusively breastfed until six months of age, with continued breastfeeding along with food for two years. Both Randazzo and Gans think that if more women request the breast pumps through their insurance companies, the kinks of the law’s process will get ironed out. “Obamacare has pros and cons, but this is one of the great things about it,” Gans stated. “It’s one of the expenses that can be taken care of. They (insurance companies), of course, aren’t going to advertise it.”