Young generation is waiting longer to have children while they pursue career & higher education. Social and cultural shift has turned youngsters to delay raising families unaware of associated risk with maternity.
Birth outcomes are associated with the age of the mother. Older mothers are at high risk for miscarriage, birth anomalies, birth defects and pregnancy complications like blood pressure & diabetes. Higher the age, poorer the outcomes to pregnancies.
Conditions during the pregnancy, actual labor, during caesarean or post birth that requires serious attention to the health of the mother are termed as complications of pregnancy. Complications of the pregnancy add to the financial burden to the couples hence as a responsible parent, one should be prepared for cost related not only for complication of pregnancy but also other related expenses during pregnancy & post birth.
Health insurance policies available in market takes care of expenses related to the pregnancy in form of Maternity expenses. Maternity coverage comes as an Add On or inbuilt benefit in basic plan. Regular insurance policies do not provide maternity coverage as insurance events likely to occur are not insured. Maternity benefit generally is offered with a waiting period of 2 – 3 years. Also, insurance companies do not allow purchase of maternity cover if you are already pregnant. Hence, it is advisable to purchase a health policy as soon as possible so that the waiting period is completed. Cost incurred for pregnancy complications comes under the ambit of health insurance policy. Expenses for termination of pregnancy due to various reasons and ectopic pregnancy with its complication are also covered under the policy.
Pregnancy related cost provided under maternity cover are, pre & post hospitalization expenses like consultations including follow ups, investigations, medicines & vaccination etc. Maternity cover includes ambulance charges and hospitalization for labor/caesarean including pre & post-natal expenses taking care of new born baby.
Some co-branded policies are also sold by banks for their bank account customers with minimal waiting period i.e. 9 months, however with very small percentage of opted sum insured usually 5-10%. Employers of working professional also extend group health policies for their employees providing maternity cover as an Add On. Mostly, maternity cover is sub limited up to 50000 for Normal delivery & 75000 for surgical procedure. Now-a-days insurance companies has also come up with maternity specific policies.
Hence, opting for health insurance policy with maternity coverage is beneficial for the young adults planning to raise family.