Know Everything About Maternity Health Insurance

Pregnancy is one of the beautiful and most important phases of a woman’s life. Maternity brings unquantifiable joy in the life of parents as the entire family including the parents get busy in finalizing the name of the baby, getting the room ready for the new member, and also start planning for the future financial needs of the baby. 

But wait a minute! Often it is found that the to-be-parents miss doing financial planning for covering the cost of maternity. With the rising cost of healthcare planning, before-hand for the cost of maternity is wise. Thankfully, almost all leading health insurance providers in India, today, they are offering maternity health insurance plans to cover the cost of maternity, including both pre-delivery and post-delivery expenses. Read on to know in detail all about maternity health insurance plans.

What is the Maternity Health Insurance Plan?

As the name suggests, a maternity health insurance plan is designed to cover the cost of delivery. The policy provides to cover delivery expenses, diagnostic test expenses, medical expenses, cost of hospitalization. Some of the leading health insurance providers offer to extend the cover up to 3 months starting from the delivery date and also the cost of vaccinations till the baby turns one.

Is Maternity Health Insurance Different from a Health Insurance Policy?

While considering insurance coverage people usually have a health insurance policy either purchased by themselves or offered by an employer, a family floater health insurance plan. All these insurance policies may or may not cover the cost of maternity. 

For instance – your family floater health insurance plan might be covering the cost of maternity but that coverage is usually for a specific amount only. Additionally, the family floater health insurance plan is for coping with the cost of unexpected medical situations but maternity is a planned and known scenario. Therefore, having a dedicated insurance cover is much more beneficial than any type of health insurance policy.

Additionally, some of the insurance providers offer an add-on to cover the cost of maternity. So, if your individual health insurance plan or a family floater Mediclaim policy or the health insurance cover offered by the employer offers such a facility then it is wise to compare the offerings of the plan and opt for the plan that meets your needs. 

Most maternity insurance plans are comprehensive health insurance plans with additional maternity benefits. However, there are some comprehensive health insurance plans where maternity benefit is the primary benefit of the plan like the Care Joy Plan.

How is a Health Plan with Maternity Benefits Different from What is Paid by the Employer?

Nowadays, every employer by law must provide maternity leaves and maternity coverages to their female employees. There are key similarities and differences between what the employer provides and what you provide for yourself. 

You need to invest monthly, quarterly, or yearly premiums to the insurance company for maternity coverages. Usually, such maternity coverages unlock after 3 to 4 years of premium. Whereas, when you sign the contract and enter into an employer-employee relationship, you trigger clauses like the maternity one in this aspect. 

So far as similarities are concerned, you need to provide all bills to both, the insurance company as well as, to your employer to reap the benefits of both the coverages. 

Who Should Opt for a Maternity Health Insurance Plan?

Maternity Health Insurance plan is suitable for people who are planning to start a family in near future. The Maternity health plan must be taken before-hand as in most cases they come with a waiting period clause i.e. the insurance provider will not cover any maternity claim arising during the waiting period. Kindly note that the waiting period for a maternity health insurance ranges anywhere between 9 months to 3 years i.e. it differs from insurer to insurer. 

What are the Inclusions and Exclusions of Maternity Health Insurance?

A Maternity Health insurance plan is designed to cover the expenses incurred during the maternity period namely:

• Diagnostic Test
• Medicines
• Hospitalization expenses
• Cost of delivery (Normal / Caesarean)
• Pre-Hospitalization expenses
• Post-Hospitalization Expenses
• Ambulance expenses

The exclusions under a maternity health insurance plan are:

• Pre-existing medical condition
• Expenses related to IVF treatment
• Non-Allopathic Treatments
• Stem Cell extraction and preservation expenses
• Abortion related expenses

How to Purchase the Best Maternity Insurance Plan?

Planning for a baby? Congratulations! For the decision of expanding the family and deciding to opt for a maternity health insurance plan. Here is a quick check-list you need to consider while selecting the best maternity insurance plan

• Compare and look around for all the options available online as well as the offline channel.
• Talk to an insurance expert get all your queries resolved
• Carefully understand the conditions related to sub-limits, inclusions, exclusions, waiting period, etc.

Conclusion

Maternity Health insurance plan is a dedicated insurance cover designed to take care of the medical expenses related to motherhood and delivery. Maternity Insurance can be used as a safety net to protect oneself against the sky-rocketing cost of pregnancy-related medical expenses.