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What to expect from your health insurance when expecting

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Est read time 2 minutes Pulished on 28th Feb 2021

Welcoming parenthood brings great happiness into a couple’s life. Expecting parents start planning their upcoming journey by zeroing in on a good doctor and hospital, applying for maternity break, preparing for the baby shower and decorating the newborn's room. However, much before embracing parenthood, a couple needs to take an important step, i.e.getting maternity health insurance with adequate coverage. If you are ready to take on new roles and responsibilities that come along with parenthood, let us discuss this important step in detail.

As an individual or as a couple, you might be covered by an individual or family floater health plan. A maternity insurance policy is an add-on cover to those plans. Except for the fact that the cost of medical procedures is getting costlier with time, there is also a possibility of several complications that may arise with pregnancy. Once you have health insurance for pregnancy, all maternity-related expenses will be covered by the insurer. Depending on the policy wording, some also compensate for payments arising out of fertility issues and the newborn’s hospitalisation charges and vaccination charges, up to 90 days from the date of delivery. Even if you are not planning for a child anytime soon, such a plan will keep you safeguarded even in case of an unplanned pregnancy.

Features of top maternity insurance plans:

There are several health insurance plans for pregnancy offered by different insurance providers. If you are spoilt for choice, here are a few benefits that your policy should be offering:

• Child-Delivery Expenses: Be it a normal delivery or be it through a C Section surgery, the cost in cities can run into a few lakhs. Having a policy that covers hospitalisation charges for all room rent, pregnancy-related complications and labour, delivery and operations is a must. The cover should at least mention two deliveries in case you have twins. It should take care of ambulance charges as well.
• Newborn Baby Cover: Even after the delivery, the newborn may require immediate treatment. A good plan should include a newborn baby cover. It will take care of any medical expenses after delivery for the next three months, without charging any additional cost. This will include vaccination charges as well.
• Infertility Expenses: The modern lifestyle has had a drastic impact on our health and many couples struggle to conceive. Your plan should cover infertility-related treatments.
• Medically Necessary Pregnancy Terminations: If due to any unfortunate complication where the couple is required to have a medically necessary lawful pregnancy termination, the add-on cover should have your back.  
• A good network of hospitals: During pregnancy, there are several occasions when you have to rush to the hospital. To have a good hospital in your vicinity that is also part of your insurer’s network of hospitals is an ideal situation. This way, you can opt for a cashless claim.

Exclusions and waiting period

• Expenses for ectopic pregnancy are not covered. Similarly, prenatal and post-natal medical expenses, unless it leads to hospitalisation, are not reimbursed.
• Expenses incurred as a result of treating HIV/AIDS, drug or alcohol or any self-inflicted injury are not covered.
• Usually, the maternity add-on cover has a waiting period of 2 years. You can only make the claim after having completed that period.
• Sometimes, there is also an age limit for this. You can check with your insurer.

Conclusion

Whether it’s your first time or second, being pregnant means being excited and nervous in equal measures. To ensure that you have everything under control, you meet the best doctors and opt for the best medical facilities available and to take care of all expenses, the maternity insurance policy comes in handy. Maternity health insurance protects your savings and will allow you to completely enjoy your entry into parenthood.

Disclaimer:The above information is for illustrative purpose only. For more details, please refer to policy wordings and prospectus before concluding the sales.