If you plan to have a baby, you must also prepare yourself financially to become a parent. While you can use your savings and investment to pay for the pregnancy expenses, you may want to preserve your savings for the baby’s later years. As for the delivery-related expenses, you should rely on pocket-friendly maternity insurance to help you cover healthcare expenses with no added medical costs. These plans also prove beneficial in case things turn complicated and you require additional healthcare coverage.
Continue reading to know more about buying health insurance that covers maternity.
In India, the cost of quality medical hospitalization is high in private institutions. Particularly for pregnancy-related hospitalization, the expenses are high enough to force parents choose government facilities or local hospitals. In 2020, India witnessed a maximum number of childbirths at the hospitals and a handful part of the childbirth percentage happened within one’s home. This is in stark contrast to the earlier days when people preferred home birth and avoided hospitalization altogether. This shows that today people prefer professional hospitalization care for delivery. And to meet the hefty hospitalization expenses, people need adequate health insurance, especially in metro cities.
Maternity insurance is a type of health insurance that covers pregnant women against pregnancy expenses for an affordable premium. You can only purchase maternity insurance when you are still planning for pregnancy and not currently pregnant. It is because insurers consider pregnancy a pre-existing condition.
If you apply for insurance while pregnant, you will not be able to make any claims during the waiting period. Thus, it is advisable for expecting parents to purchase maternity insurance at least a year before you plan family expansion to avoid the rejection of claims. It is also because most insurers have a waiting period of 9 months, during which you cannot raise a pregnancy claim.
Now that you know the basics of maternity insurance, you should learn about the additional benefits it offers:
The main advantage of having health insurance that covers maternity is that you don’t need to have separate medical policies. This way, you can avoid the pain of maintaining two different policies while paying their premium separately. This helps the policyholder get all the maternity insurance benefits through the existing health insurance policy without the additional hassles.
Health insurance offering maternity coverage comes at a considerably lower premium rate than two separate policies. This is because, comprehensive health insurance covers all types of risks and health conditions, including maternity while a maternity cover only covers pregnancy-related medical costs. This way, the parents can reduce their burden of premium costs while securing the mother and the newborn against unaffordable medical bills.
If you opt only for maternity insurance, there are certain limitations as to the coverage options. For instance, a comprehensive health cover will protect you against maternity expenses as well as the costs of treating other looming diseases and conditions, like COVID-19. Also, the number of coverage days, sum-insured options, and other benefits are doubled up when you buy maternity coverage as an addition to a standard health policy.
Maternity insurance is only for a limited duration, and the policy term ends within 2 or 3 years. But health insurance is a long-term policy. If you choose the health insurance that covers maternity, you can remove the added coverage of maternity once you are through your pregnancy phase. This way, you not only continue securing your life but also don’t miss on the no-claim bonus, if you have earned any. Thus you continue the policy without any breaks, and the duration for which you have the maternity cover won’t affect your base policy.
Knowing these benefits of health insurance that covers maternity, it is advisable that you check out JOY Maternity Insurance Plan, offered by Care Health Insurance. It is one of India’s most reliable maternity plans providing extensive coverage in all stages of pregnancy, and the best facilities for the mother and the newborn. Visit the official Care Health Insurance website to know more about their maternity insurance plan.
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