A significant, and familiar, bill is moving along in the Legislature that would require health insurance policies sold in California to include maternity care. Its prospects for passage appear good because, as Sen. Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, noted before the Assembly Appropriations Commitee today, the insurance industry has removed its opposition to SB 155.

In her testimony, Shannon Crowley-Smith of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists noted that this is the fifth time similar legislation has moved through the Legislature. The previous four times, she said, it was vetoed by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger because "why should men have to pay for paternity?"

Ouch.