Maternity or pregnancy is an important phase of life, and one needs to prepare in advance to embrace parenthood. Though rearing a child is an expensive affair and may require good financial backup to meet the requirements of a growing baby. From hospital stay to delivery costs to medical tests and medicines, a well-constructed maternity insurance plan can help ease off the rising costs so that you can enjoy the happiest moment of your life without any stress.
What is Maternity Insurance?
Maternity insurance is usually provided as an add-on or additional rider with your main health insurance policy. This insurance covers expenses related to both baby delivery options – caesarean and normal delivery. Some insurance service providers prefer to provide maternity benefit as a rider or additional service and lower the burden on your pocket. Some corporates offer their women employees the benefit of maternity insurance along with a health insurance policy.Also, in a majority of corporate group policies, maternity is a rider (add-on benefit) with a sub-limit of not exceeding Rs 50,000.
Some of the benefits of maternity insurance are pre and post hospitalization wherein pre hospitalization costs up to 30 days prior to the date of admission is covered. Expenses such as nursing and room charges, surgeon fee, doctor consultation and anaesthetistconsultation are also covered.
A thorough understanding of inclusions and exclusions in maternity insurance is imperative in order to make sound financial decisions and ensure optimum utilization of the insurance plan.
Let’s now have a look at some of the top health insurance plans with maternity coverage:
1. Royal Sundaram Master Product – Total Health Plus
The Total Health Plus plan offered by Royal Sundaram General Insurance is a complete insurance package that offers benefits up to Rs 30,000-Rs 50,000. This plan covers maternity hospitalization and any complications arising before or after delivery. However, you can avail the maternity benefit only after a waiting period of 3 years. So you should plan for your pregnancy accordingly in order to cover pregnancy hospitalization cost.
2. Apollo Munich Insurance – Easy Health Family Floater
The Easy Health Family Floater plan by Apollo Munich Insurance offers three different insurance plans – Standard, Exclusive and Premium. Though the standard plan is a normal insurance plan with some benefits, the exclusive and premium plans offer maternity and new born coverage. The exclusive and premium options covers maternity expenses incurred both before and after child birth procedures, and new born baby expenses from age 1-90 days.
3. Max Bupa – Heartbeat Family Floater
The Heartbeat Family Floater plan offered by Max Bupa Health Insurance is one of the best plans since it provides coverage for maternity and new born in all of its three plan types – silver, gold and platinum. In this plan, you get maternity coverage and new born baby care including first year vaccinations. All the three types of sub-plans offer maternity benefits up to two deliveries, provided the policyholder and spouse have been covered under the policy for two continuous years.
4. Cigna TTK Health Insurance – ProHealth Plus Plan
The ProHealth Plus Plan offered by Cigna TTK Health Insurance offers maternity, new born expenses and vaccination cover. The maximum health cover on this plan is Rs 10 lakh. This plan mainly provides coverage up to Rs 15000 for normal delivery and Rs 25000 for a caesarean delivery. The maternity coverage is available only after 48 months of waiting period. It also covers the first year vaccinations expenses for your new born.
5. Star Health Wedding Gift Pregnancy Cover
This maternity cover offered by Star Health offers coverage for maximum up to two deliveries. This plan provides coverage for normal as well as caesarean delivery including pre and post-natal expenses, and any post-delivery complication cover for the mother post child birth. There is a waiting period of 3 years and the policy also provides coverage for new born expenses. The maximum health insurance cover is Rs 10 lakh.
Generally, insurance companies lets you enrol or purchase the maternity insurance cover only when you conceive. They do not consider your application if you are already pregnant. Also, maternity insurance policies have a waiting period of 3-4 years before benefits come into play.
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