Starting your family is a wonderful milestone, one that you have been looking forward to for a long time. But there is a lot you need to prepare for before you can welcome your little one into the world. Alongside the other factors like housing and education, there is an important aspect that can get lost - financial stability for unforeseen circumstances.
With the rising costs of healthcare, getting a health insurance policy has become a vital move today. By investing in a health insurance policy on time, you can ensure uncompromised treatment quality and maternity benefits without worrying about the costs.
There are a number of health insurance policies available in the market today; many of which offer maternity benefits at an affordable rate. While these plans sound like the perfect solution, the downside to them is the waiting period listed on them. For many of these policies that cover maternity benefits, the waiting period listed is anywhere between 2 to 4 years. Since this is a much longer time period than what most couples expect, they generally drop their plans to buy the health insurance policy and look for other alternatives.
Importance Of Getting Health Insurance Policy With Maternity Benefits
Your new landmark occasion calls for a number of preparations. The first among them is financial planning that is sorely needed at this stage of life. In order to get the best healthcare services, you have to select a plan with suitable maternity benefits. This makes it absolutely crucial that you find the right health insurance policy, especially since costs of maternity care are very high in India.
The health insurance policy you pick will be responsible for helping you have a safe pregnancy. You can ensure its success by picking a plan that offers assistance with a number of healthcare expenses like pre-hospitalisation, post-hospitalisation, delivery costs, ambulance expenses, and any other medical expenses associated with an infant.
Maternity Insurance Policy with No Waiting Period
The ideal scenario would be to find a health insurance policy that offers maternity benefits with no waiting period. Regrettably, there are no such plans available in the market today. Instead, maternity health insurance policies have a waiting period that could range between 9 months to 6 years.
9 months is the least amount of waiting time you can find for health insurance policies with maternity benefits in the country. That is why it is crucial that you plan for the financial aspect in advance, as it will be both beneficial and necessary at the time of delivery.
Does the Waiting Period Vary Depending upon the Insurance Plan?
he reason why insurance companies do not provide health insurance policies with no waiting period is because they consider pregnancy as a pre-existing condition. Most pre-existing conditions are considered to be beyond coverage in the case of insurance. That is the reason why a health insurance policy with maternity benefits is only available with a waiting period.
In general, most health insurance plans have a basic waiting period of 30 days to activate, but in the case of pre-existing conditions, this period may stretch to upwards of 2 years. This can also change from company to company.
Ways to Reduce The Waiting Period
A number of health insurance companies offer a way to reduce the waiting period in the health insurance policy by paying an extra premium. In case you are dependent on a plan provided by your employers, you can switch from the group health insurance policy to an individual health insurance policy after exiting your company. With this move, you can completely eliminate the waiting period.
Looking out for your family and loved ones is something that requires some amount of planning done in advance. And when it comes to welcoming the future generations of your family, there is no stone unturned in your quest to provide the best. That is why make sure you start preparing well in advance by buying the right health insurance policy that offers maternity benefits in time for your requirements. If you need help deciding which plan to buy, or need more information, visit Coverfox - one of India’s leading insurance broking portals. Here, you can explore plans by more than 40 companies and make the best decision for your loved ones.