Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) introduced a bill on Tuesday morning to remove employer health insurance penalties for new parents exiting the workforce to stay at home with their children.
Under the current version of the Family and Medical Leave Act, organizations with over 50 employees are required to give 12 weeks of unpaid medical leave in the event of childbirth or adoption as well as serious illness or the serious illness of an immediate family member.
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During that 12-week period, employers are required to continue to pay their share of the employee’s health insurance premiums. If any employee does not return to work for any reason other than the continuation of their own illness or “circumstances beyond the employee’s control,” the employer can reclaim paid-out insurance premiums.
Vance’s Fairness for Stay-at-Home Parents Act, however, would amend the bill to include a provision that allows for employees who choose not to return to work in order to become a stay-at-home parent to also be exempt from reclaiming premiums.
Under the proposed legislation, employers would be required to notify eligible employees that they would not be responsible for back insurance premiums if the employee decided not to return to work after the birth of their child.
“Our laws should not penalize new parents who choose to stay home to care for their newborn babies,” Vance told the Washington Examiner. “We should celebrate and promote young families, not punish them. This legislation would relieve a serious financial burden for working families all over America and steer Washington in a more pro-family direction.”
Parents of newborns are often already under significant financial strain due to the high cost of child delivery in a hospital, with the national average being over $18,000 in total, or nearly $3,000 out-of-pocket if insured.
A spokesperson for Vance’s office estimates that his bill would affect between 100,000 and 300,000 parents each year, possibly relieving the financial pressure of returning back to work.
The Mayo Clinic estimates that over 50% of women in the United States return to work after their maternity leave. One in four mothers return to work within two weeks of giving birth, which is associated with higher rates of baby blues and more serious postpartum depression.
The issue of parenthood and family leave is strongly connected to issues on abortion, as anti-abortion Republicans have sought to emphasize pro-parent policy positions in the wake of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in June 2022.
Vance has been consistently against abortion and in favor of increasing financial and social supportive resources for young parents to promote a culture that sees a child as “a blessing to be nurtured” rather than “an inconvenience to be thrown away,” as he has said on his campaign website.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is an original co-sponsor of Vance’s bill and has similarly been an advocate of incentivizing parenthood as a way to minimize abortion.
Rubio, who supported Sen. Lindsey Graham‘s (R-SC) introduction of a federal 15-week abortion ban, has also advocated using Social Security contributions to cover paid family leave, and for expanding the child tax credit.
“The Fairness for Stay-At-Home Parents Act supports mothers’ and parents’ invaluable role in raising the next generation,’ Rubio told the Washington Examiner. “This legislation stops employers from imposing harsh financial penalties if a parent decides not to return to work after unpaid leave, and it empowers families to make choices that prioritize the well-being of their children.”
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Recent polling data indicate that 80% of people support a national-level paid family leave program, including 70% of Republicans.
A 2018 study conducted by the libertarian think tank the Cato Institute, however, found that broad-based support for federalized family leave decreased significantly across all partisan identities when the poll question included raising taxes to cover the program.
