Good Family Health Insurance Plan - A Must for Expecting Parents
When you are all set to welcome those tiny steps into your life, you are all set to welcome happiness. However, with this happiness comes a plethora of responsibilities and you should be prepared to take up these responsibilities. The moment you know, you are going to enter into this new phase of your life soon your anxiety knows no bounds. There can be multiple reasons for this anxiety; one of them being the expenditure to be incurred during the entire procedure. A solution to this is a family health insurance plan for the expecting parents.
A properly constructed health insurance with maternity coverage and newborn coverage can definitely help you in enjoying this new phase of your life. Family health insurance plan with maternity coverage or maternity insurance includes financial cover during the period of pregnancy, prenatal and postnatal care for your newborn baby, ambulance expenditure, pre-hospitalization and post-hospitalization expenses, etc. Your newborn baby’s health care expenses are also included in your insurance plan for a specified time period.
Need for maternity coverage in your insurance plan
You need to be very well prepared to handle the various expenses related to pregnancy and the delivery of your baby. There can be both expected and unexpected expenses during pregnancy and while the delivery of your baby. With the cost of medical facilities increasing every single day; you should definitely include maternity coverage as a rider in your general health insurance plan so as to meet up with these expenses in a carefree manner.
Benefits of family health insurance plans for parents who are expecting
Mostly all health insurance plans for families offer similar coverage after a certain waiting period and for 2 deliveries. We can discuss some of the major benefits of family health insurance plans for parents who are expecting their child.
- The first and major benefit of a family health insurance plan for expecting parents is the coverage that you get for the expenses of the childbirth. It might be a case of normal delivery or a Caesarean delivery; the childbirth expenditure will cover up to a certain limit. You can definitely use this clear off the hospital bills and can choose a good hospital for the delivery.
- Family health insurance plan with maternity cover also provides coverage for the medical costs related to the newborn baby such as nursery charges, charges for initial medicines and vaccines, etc. So, the expenditure which is incurred for the health care facilities of your baby immediately after the birth is covered under this plan.
- Many family health insurance plans provide extended newborn coverage along with maternity coverage. This newborn coverage is extended for a period of 3 months. It can include the charges for vaccination, the medical expenditure in case of any medical emergency of the newborn baby. Many family health insurance plans will also offer coverage for treatment of critical illness like Cerebral Palsy or the Down’s syndrome.
- Maternity coverage provides pre-natal care and care for post-natal as well. Before the delivery, you will have to go for many checkups and even after the delivery you will have to undergo medical checkups. These expenses can be covered by family health insurance plans providing maternity benefits.
- You can claim tax benefits under Section 80D of the Income Tax Act, 1961 for the amount covered by a family health insurance plan with maternity cover.
You may also like to read Family health plan - why is it necessary for you and your family?
Important aspects to look for in a family health insurance plan for expecting parents
There are certain major features you should look in before selecting a family health insurance plan.
- The maternity cover included in the family health insurance plan should be providing coverage for the pre-hospitalization expenses i.e. for 30 days prior to the delivery and coverage for the post-hospitalization expenses i.e. for a specific time period post the delivery as well.
- A good family health insurance plan should provide coverage for the pre and post-natal expenses. The expenses that accrue due to any particular complications during the pregnancy or during delivery should be covered by the insurance plan. The policy should also cover the expenses in case of a termination of pregnancy due to medical complications.
- Before selecting a particular family health insurance plan, as an expecting parent you should make sure that your insurance plan covers the various charges related to hospitalization such as rental charges of the room, ambulance charges, doctor charges, charges of nurse and anesthetist charges, any charges for specialist or medical consultation, etc.
- Another important feature to look for before finalizing a family health insurance plan is to check the inclusion of the coverage for cost incurred in case of any medical disorder detected in the newborn baby. In such a case, your family health insurance plan should provide coverage for these medical expenses at least for certain duration of time.
- Expecting parents should very well check on the waiting period of a health insurance plan providing maternity benefits. Many insurance plans have a waiting period of around 36 to 72 months and if you are expecting your little bundle of joy immediately; then your insurance policy would hardly be of any help to you. You should opt for those health insurance plans which provide maternity benefits but at a very low waiting period.
You may also like to read Best health insurance with the minimum waiting period for pregnancy
Good Family Health Insurance plans for expecting parents
Let us consider at some of the best family health insurance plans with maternity Insurance cover for expecting parents.
1. Max Bupa
This family health insurance plan is known as The Heartbeat family floater plan. This family floater plan provides both newborn and maternity cover. It has three variants by which the coverage is provided i.e. Gold, Silver and Platinum. Also, with the maternity cover and newborn cover, the charges for vaccinations in the first year are also covered in this floater plan. This policy provides coverage till two pregnancies and under the condition that the spouse and the policy holder have continued this policy for two years.
The family health insurance plan by Royal Sundaram is known as Royal Sundaram Master Product-Total Health Plus. This health insurance plan provides benefits of Rs.30, 000 to Rs.50, 000. The major expenses which are covered under this health insurance plan are hospitalization expenses, pre-partum expenses, post-partum expenses and also the medical expenditure incurred in case of any complications in pregnancy and delivery.
3. Star Health
The health insurance plan with maternity benefits by Star Health is known as Star Health Wedding Gift Pregnancy Cover. The maximum health benefit extended by this health insurance plan is of Rs. 10 lakhs and has a waiting period of 3 years. This maternity cover is available for two deliveries and provides coverage for Normal and C-Sec delivery. This family health insurance plan provides the benefits of coverage for pre-natal and post-natal expenses, expenses related to health care of newborn baby and other expenses which might arise due to any complications that happen post partum in the mother and baby.
Hence, bringing a new life into this world is not an easy task at all and will need a lot of prior preparations related to it. A good family health insurance plan with maternity cover will definitely boost your confidence and morale in taking up this new responsibility more pro-actively.
Also Read
Why Adding Parents in Family Health Insurance Policy is a Bad Idea?
