International Cesarean Awareness Network

We provide links to each state’s insurance commission website here.  Each of these has an online means to file a complaint and the street address and phone number can also be found on the website, if you prefer to contact the insurance commissioner by other means.  It is important to realize that in most states, it is LEGAL for an insurance company to exclude or restrict coverage on private/individual policies because of a previous cesarean.  However, when ICAN contacted some of the state insurance commissioners, we were told that “no one has ever complained” and that was the reason given for there being no action on this issue.

Below the list of states are several templates for letters to insurance commissioners or elected officials.  Feel free to use them, or adapt them for your own use, if you prefer.  If you do send a letter, please send a copy to advocacy @ ican-online.org.  If we can verify a significant number of complaints, we may be able to bring more exposure to this issue.

National map

Alabama

Alaska

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Colorado

Connecticut

District of Columbia

Delaware

Florida

Georgia

Hawaii

Idaho

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan

Mississippi

Missouri

Minnesota

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New Mexico

New York

North Carolina

North Dakota

Ohio

Oklahoma

Oregon

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

Virginia

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Vermont

Washington

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Wyoming

Read ICAN’s Press Release about Denial of Insurance Benefits due to a Previous Cesarean.

To find contact information for your state elected officials, you can go to Common Cause or Vote Smart, where you can search by zip code to find contact information for all your elected officials, including at the state level. 

You can find detailed and complete contact information for your U.S. Senators using the search function in the upper right corner of the page.   You can find detailed and complete contact information for the U.S. House of Representatives using the zip code search function in the upper left corner of the page. 

If you would like to compose your own letter, here is a good guide for how to write an effective letter.

Letter by a woman with a previous cesarean

Letter by a man with a partner with a previous cesarean

Letter by a woman with no previous cesarean

Letter by a man with a partner with no previous cesarean

Please contact the ICAN Advocacy Director with any questions or concerns you may have.