That NPR link doesn’t tell me a thing, except that you can’t sign up outside the open enrollment period if you find out you are pregnant because that in itself isn’t a ‘life event’. The concept of ‘life event’ applied to company based insurance before the ACA was ever passed. If I was working for a company and wanted to make a change to my insurance, I could only do so after the baby was born, not once I found out I was pregnant. So that isn’t an ACA change of any kind.
I am honestly still confused by the issue. If this girl WAS on her parents’ insurance policy, and didn’t drop off yet, she should have coverage. Unless she went outside their insurance network or they have a high deductible that has not been met yet. But her parents need to have signed her up for their coverage each year (including at the end of 2014 for 2015) through their employer (assuming they have employer based insurance). And she needs to use doctors and facilities that are in their network (a challenge of its own sometimes when there are specialists involved, but that would be the topic for another thread!). And someone needs to pay up to the deductible amount for the plan (there can be individual and family deductibles) and pay the copays. But prenatal care should in general be covered under ANY insurance plan if she meets those criteria. Under the ACA, I actually don’t see how the employer could get out of it.