A woman’s first reaction when she finds out that she is pregnant is of course joy and excitement. But then it starts to sink in that they will be facing plenty of expenses in terms of medical bills in just a couple of months.
Statistics show that 87% of women who get pregnant has maternity health insurance while the other 13% do not. This means that those women who do not have insurance are going to have to look for other ways to spend for their medical expenses and most of the time this takes a huge dip into their savings. Because they do not want the added cost, these women without maternity health insurance will want to skip the pre-natal screenings and other care procedures. This will be detrimental to them and to their baby in the long run. Another thing is that for those women who do not have maternity health insurance, they can just hope that there will be no complications in the pregnancy or else they would have to shell out more money.
You may think that you got yourself covered because you have a general health insurance plan. But the thing is that most of the time maternity health insurance is not included in these. You need to add this kind of insurance and it will cost you. There are insurance companies who do not provide maternity health insurance or if they do they look at it as a pre-existing condition. Although the law is against this, they still mange to find loopholes.
Some women could have COBRA which is an insurance coverage that some employers give. If you have this, check and see if it covers maternity health insurance. It might cost more but the extra is definitely worth it.
There are group plans available which include maternity health insurance. However, it could take anywhere from 3 months to a year before you can get the benefits from this. What if you get pregnant before you can access the insurance?
There are some states, like California, which have programs that are targeted for pregnant women without good health insurance. Some programs have sponsorships from the government. Medicaid is an example of this and they focus more on people with low income levels.
Another option for pregnant women without maternity health insurance is to get a Maternity Card. This is a program that aims to give assistance to pregnant women. It has gotten a lot of acclaim since it started. By obtaining a Maternity Card, you will get a lot of your medical needs taken care of and it costs relatively lower than most insurance plans.
Some maternity health insurance plans come with exclusion periods and some of them can be as long as a month. Check each package and learn as much as you can about them so that you will be able to figure out which one would work best for you.
Women should definitely start getting their maternity health insurance as soon as they can, especially once they get into their years of child-bearing because pregnancy, although full of joy, can be expensive as well.
Tags: health insurance, health insurance company, health insurance provider, maternity health insurance, pregnancy