Saving on Maternity: A Guide to Maternity Insurance
Pregnancy is a beautiful time for a family. Whether it’s your first or you’re expecting another addition to your clan, this special time is also a high risk time for both a woman’s health and safety.
Securing maternity insurance can be a great way to ensuring quality hospital care but there are a few things you need to know before you conceive. International insurance broker UAE Medical Insurance (UMI) has these tips to ensure you get the right coverage.
What is maternity insurance?
Just like dental or vision coverage, maternity benefits are often an “add-on” feature attached to most health insurance policies. In many cases, it may be possible to purchase coverage like a “top-up” plan that fills in whatever gaps you have in your main plan.
What maternity insurance exists to do is to give you financial and mental peace of mind during your pregnancy.
Maternity plans come in different shapes and sizes, however you can usually expect them to cover pregnancy tests, delivery costs (such as doctor’s fees and ward/room charges), and sometimes complications that may arise during pregnancy or delivery.
What you should consider is just what your health risks are and what you feel is necessary coverage so you aren’t caught out paying for often expensive out-of-pocket for care.
Why might I need it?
Having a child can be extremely expensive, depending on the country you’re in. For example, places like the US and Hong Kong have some of the highest average prenatal costs at private hospitals – somewhere between USD 3,200 and USD 3,800.
The cost of giving birth via a normal delivery in Hong Kong can go well beyond USD 20,000 in some cases. Caesarean costs are also expensive with a c-section birth in the US costing USD 30,900 on average. While the standard of care is very high, you can expect you will be paying for it.
If you’re an expat working overseas, you may find that the local public health system is not up to the same standard as more developed nations. Often, private hospitals will provide a much better maternity option however they will still cost more than going public.
In places like Bangkok, you can still expect to pay USD 3,315 for a c-section birth at a private hospital that has comparative healthcare quality.
What can I expect will be covered?
Generally, maternity insurance will cover costs related to:
- Pre and post-natal treatments and examinations
- Medically prescribed c-sections
- Normal deliveries
- Deliveries with complications
- Deliveries following fertility treatments
- Hospital or home delivery costs
Saving on Maternity: a guide to maternity insurance
Pregnancy is a beautiful time for a family. Whether it’s your first or you’re expecting another addition to your clan, this special time is also a high risk time for both a woman’s health and safety.
Securing maternity insurance can be a great way to ensuring quality hospital care but there are a few things you need to know before you conceive. International insurance broker UAE Medical Insurance (UMI) has these tips to ensure you get the right coverage.
What is maternity insurance?
Just like dental or vision coverage, maternity benefits are often an “add-on” feature attached to most health insurance policies. In many cases, it may be possible to purchase coverage like a “top-up” plan that fills in whatever gaps you have in your main plan.
What maternity insurance exists to do is to give you financial and mental peace of mind during your pregnancy.
Maternity plans come in different shapes and sizes, however you can usually expect them to cover pregnancy tests, delivery costs (such as doctor’s fees and ward/room charges), and sometimes complications that may arise during pregnancy or delivery.
What you should consider is just what your health risks are and what you feel is necessary coverage so you aren’t caught out paying for often expensive out-of-pocket for care.
Why might I need it?
Having a child can be extremely expensive, depending on the country you’re in. For example, places like the US and Hong Kong have some of the highest average prenatal costs at private hospitals – somewhere between USD 3,200 and USD 3,800.
The cost of giving birth via a normal delivery in Hong Kong can go well beyond USD 20,000 in some cases. Caesarean costs are also expensive with a c-section birth in the US costing USD 30,900 on average. While the standard of care is very high, you can expect you will be paying for it.
If you’re an expat working overseas, you may find that the local public health system is not up to the same standard as more developed nations. Often, private hospitals will provide a much better maternity option however they will still cost more than going public.
In places like Bangkok, you can still expect to pay USD 3,315 for a c-section birth at a private hospital that has comparative healthcare quality.
What can I expect will be covered?
Generally, maternity insurance will cover costs related to:
- Pre and post-natal treatments and examinations
- Medically prescribed c-sections
- Normal deliveries
- Deliveries with complications
- Deliveries following fertility treatments
- Hospital or home delivery costs
More comprehensive plans exist that extend cover to include a range of benefits for your baby as well. This could be health insurance extension to cover newborns, fertility treatment costs, congenital birth defects, and treatments for any complications occurring after delivery. While these extensions cost more, they may save you a lot more money in the long run in the event that something unexpected happens.
Should I wait for coverage?
If you’re set on starting a family, our experts suggest you start the maternity process as soon as possible. While maternity coverage is great for helping you cover the costs of carrying and delivering a healthy baby, many plans require that you hold it for at least 12 months before you will be covered for pregnancy. This is to ensure that they’re not called last minute to cover a baby due in the same week.
Maternity coverage can be provided in most places and if you’ve decided you’d like to know more, give the advisors at UMI a call. They’ve been providing both new and experienced parents around the world with high quality maternity cover for great prices for more than 15 years.
They’ll talk you through the claims process, how it works during your pregnancy and be on hand to help whenever you need them.
Author Bio
UAE Medical Insurance is an international broker, based in the UAE but part of a global network covering the world, that has been operating for over 15 years.
Their expert team of advisors have experience in all things health insurance; maternity, hospitalization, vision and dental. If you’re in need of insurance and you want a team known for their unbiased advice and customer-centric focus, call the team at UMI today!
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Category: Health
