Expectant mothers need to secure themselves with adequate health insurance coverage plan in order to protect themselves from incurring huge expenses in case of any complications during pregnancy or child birth.
Health insurance is not only important for delivery but it would save you of incurring huge expenses for maternity care, prenatal check-ups, routine immunizations and pediatric consultations.
Reports state that about 14% of the uninsured population in America is women who are expecting a baby. Statistics reveal that in many cases, women who give birth to still-born babies or infants with low weight are uninsured.
During pregnancy, the woman needs to undergo a lot of medical check-ups to ensure that her health and also the health of the baby are fine. The check-ups, routine tests and medical procedures are pretty expensive, not to mention the hospitalization charges during delivery which can total up to even $12,000 on an average. This is in case of a non-complicated delivery state. Premature babies and cesarean deliveries cost even higher. The above situations are good enough to explain why insurance is highly mandatory for expecting women.
Women should purchase health insurance plan even before getting pregnant. This is because some of the insurance companies may refuse to grant insurance in case the woman is pregnant at the time applying the policy.
In case you become pregnant and are not insured, you need to browse the internet for companies which offer discounted health insurance plans with pregnancy coverage benefits and buy it on first priority. You may hit upon various insurance providers offering coverage for the same. Request for instant free quotes and compare the benefits and pricing before finalizing on both the insurance provider and the policy.
You may also gather more information on whether your state can be of help during pregnancy as there could be a possibility of chancing upon some federally funded programs that provide assistance based on the income levels.
You may also approach few agencies that work for women and children welfare. These organizations assist women with low income levels or children who are less than 5 years old. Food is provided on a daily basis for such low-income strata of the society.
While choosing a health insurance plan, you need to be careful about the coverage you choose. For example, if the coverage is only for the hospitalization, it may not be very beneficial for you because you may have to visit the doctor or the pediatrician quite a few times after delivery. These expenses would be skyrocketing on an already high budget if you are not covered by a suitable medical insurance plan that reimburses the charges of doctor consultation and prescription drugs.
Every insured should be aware of the terms and conditions stated in the policy especially for pregnancy coverage. For example, some of the plans require you to call shortly after getting admitted in the labor ward. Otherwise, you may have to pay a penalty. Similarly, some medical insurance plans limit the number of days of hospitalization stay that it would cover.