Maternity insurance earlier used to be an afterthought for the consumer but now, its ambit has been expanded to cater to evolving needs and demands.
With growing awareness around health insurance in the post-pandemic world, the demand for personalized products has also grown proportionately. This, in turn, has resulted in insurance companies rising up to the challenge and coming up with health insurance plans that offer new-age benefits to suit the modern day needs of the policyholders.
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With the advent of customized products and add-ons, certain categories in health insurance have undergone a transformation. Maternity insurance is one such category which earlier used to be an afterthought for the consumer but now, its ambit has been expanded to cater to evolving needs and demands.
Maternity health insurance
Family planning can change the course for a family in many ways, including financially. In today’s time, especially in metro cities, it takes a lot of planning to ensure a safe and secure birth and a healthy future for the baby. In certain cases, the couple might also be advised to go for IVF or other course of treatment before they can embark on the journey of parenthood. Of course, this doesn’t come without an added financial liability for families in the form of maternity-related expenses. This is where a health insurance plan with maternity benefits comes in. Most insurance companies these days offer specialized plans that offer comprehensive coverage for all maternity-related expenses.
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New-age benefits in health insurance
Comprehensive coverage: A few years back, maternity insurance coverage started and ended with the birth of the child. They covered expenses only related to childbirth. However, maternal healthcare is about more than just that. So, new-age maternity plans go well beyond and cover pre-natal and post-natal consultations and assisted procedures too. Moreover, they not only cover the mother, but also the medical costs related to the newborn for up to 90 days, post which the child can be added to the policy. These include the vaccination expenses of a newborn, which can add up to quite a lot. Even vaccines for the expecting mother are covered.
Reduced Waiting Period: Earlier, the couple had to pass a waiting period of 2-4 years to be eligible for maternity coverage. Now, modern-day health insurance plans offer waiting period as low as nine months. Even better, some of the new-age plans also offer the feature where the spouse’s served waiting period can be transferred to get maternity coverage from day-1.
Wider coverage scope: Another challenge that the couples used to face is the limited coverage that maternity plans provided. However, nowadays there are plans that allow the policyholders to carry forward the maternity sum insured to the next year if they do not make a claim. The carry-forward benefit is limited to a certain number of years, up to a maximum of 10 years, depending on the chosen plan. For example, if the plan offers a maternity benefit of Rs 20,000 and if no maternity claim is made for 10 years, the total maternity cover would increase to Rs 2.2 lakh, by adding Rs 20,000 for each claim-free year.
So, it is crucial that you do not wait for planning a family but get the insurance plan at the earliest so that the sum insured keeps adding up. Moreover, with the benefit of being able to pass on the covered waiting period to the spouse, those who are not married can also go for this plan and accumulate the maternity sum insured for the entire period.
Covering different journeys to motherhood: The journey to motherhood is different for different women. Recognizing this, many insurance plans these days offer coverage for assisted reproductive treatments and infertility treatments like In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). Moreover, in case of surrogacy, apart from the couple, whose health is covered by the health insurance plan, the surrogacy and delivery for surrogate mothers would also be covered. For those who wish to adopt a child, these plans also offer financial protection against the expenses related to the entire legal adoption process.And if the pregnancy has to be terminated due to any medical complications, the associated costs are also covered.
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It is, hence, fair to say that these plans are as comprehensive as they can get. These plans have received a very positive response, which clearly indicates that the trend is likely to continue.
