Many hospitals have a low-cost or free prenatal clinic.
The SCHIP programs cover prenatal care for low-income women.
The woman herself may not be covered for anesthesia during labor and postpatum, but prenatal care is covered, and the woman will likely be covered if family income is low enough.
The other problem is that the states may not be processing or accepting SCHIP applicants due to budget shortfalls, but the article never mentions the possibility of state health care or clinics - of Planned Parenthood making the referrals, or the reasons why that wouldn’t work.
Finally - $30,000 may be the billed cost but the insurance companies will be paying only about 5-6K. The patient-consumer should have the right to pay out-of-pocket the lowest fee accepted by the hospital.
I think that the $30,000 is a little high. My wife is expecting twins in July, and we are expecting the cost of this high risk pregnancy to be around 22,000 - 25,000.