Motherhood is a blessing and we cannot avoid this very truth. Pregnancy is a vital phase of life, and one should prepare in advance to embrace parenthood. It has been given that the skyrocket expenses of various maternity treatments may turn out to be an expensive affair for many families. But if you have adequate maternity cover, you do not have to be worried. While the fretfulness about the parenthood will take days to settle, but a well-constructed maternity insurance plan can help with ease off the rising costs so that you can enjoy the happiest moment of your life without any stress. An effective maternity insurance cover offers financial protection from hospital stay to delivery costs to medical tests and medicines.
What is Maternity Insurance?
Usually a maternity insurance is considered as an add-on cover of health insurance plan. This add-on cover of health insurance provides coverage for both baby delivery options – caesarean and normal delivery. It usually provides cover for delivery and newborn charges for a mother and the infant. Some insurers prefer to provide maternity benefits as a rider or supplementary services and lower the load on your pocket. Some corporate offer their women employees maternity benefits along with a health insurance policy. A careful inclusions and exclusions in maternity insurance are essential in order to make a sound financial decision and make sure optimal utilization of the insurance plan.
According to Ashish Mehrotra, MD & CEO of Max Bupa Health Insurance, if couples start for family planning, they should be well prepared to deal with expenses associated with childbirth and maternity. The expenses are like medicines, regular diagnostic tests, hospitalization, etc.
Eligibility of Maternity Benefit
As per the view of experts, you should opt for a maternity insurance plan before you conceive as most of the insurer will deny cover if you are already pregnant. Couple between the age group of 20 years and 35 years should opt for maternity insurance plan. Health insurance plans with maternity benefits come with a long waiting period. Hence, it is always suggested purchasing maternity insurance soon after one gets married, so that the coverage waiting period is over by the time a couple plans a family.
Importance of Maternity Coverage
Childbirth with medical treatments facilities in a good hospital, have become quite expensive nowadays. Everyone is not capable to bear such a huge amount during delivery period. Thus, if you want to get the best maternity services for your wife without any financial pressure, then make sure to opt for maternity insurance coverage, as this will provide all the expenses incurred due to pregnancy. This plan bears the expense of normal pregnancy, labor, and delivery. By opting for a comprehensive health insurance policy, you can get the coverage for newborn and other related expenses.
Important Factors You Should Know While Buying a Maternity Insurance plan
Health insurance plan with maternity benefit come up with various important terms and conditions. And the coverage may vary with different insurers with different policies. But one should be careful while choosing the best maternity insurance plan.
- Coverage: & Sub limits: The most significant point to consider is coverage limit for maternity benefits and sub-limits for normal and cesarean delivery. Most of the insurance providers offer limited maternity coverage from Rs 15,000 to Rs 50,000. And very few insurance plans offer limits as high as Rs 1 lakh. So, you choose insurance policy according to your requirements.
- Waiting Periods: Generally most of the health insurance providers offer long waiting periods. So you should select such insurer that has minimum waiting period. To avoid this long waiting period, you should purchase the policy earlier.
- Pre & Post Hospitalization Expenses: You should choose such policy that offers coverage against the expenses incurred before the hospitalization and provide coverage after hospitalization that means the policy would take care of the newborn and mother post delivery.
- Pre and Postnatal Expenses: This is another important coverage bears the expenses of childcare that includes doctor’s consultation fees as well as the medication cost.
- Inpatient Hospitalization: This policy provides coverage against hospitalization charges that incurred for delivery. The sum insured of this coverage may differ under different policies.
- Vaccination Cover: Some health insurers offer coverage for the costs incurred due to the mandatory vaccination of the newborn. Hence, it is advisable to go for such policy that offers vaccination coverage.
Conclusion
Maternity insurance is an add-on cover to some health insurance companies. But now it has become a standard to offer maternity insurance coverage under one policy. So if you are enthusiastic on a high-end private room in an upright hospital, you can suppose to get a claim payout up to 20%-30% of your maternity costs. Therefore, it’s wise to choose such policy that has higher Sum Insured option on health insurance maternity advantage to tackle the delivery and hospital associated costs.
