Is maternity insurance a part of a regular health policy? Know the opinion of experts

Taking a health policy makes it easier to afford the cost of treatment. But is maternity insurance also a part of regular health policy? Pregnant women must know about this.

Achieving the happiness of Mamta is the most important time of change in one's life. Pregnancy can be emotionally, financially and physically challenging for women. They have to be strong mentally and financially. Being mentally fit, the woman will be in the right position to face the challenges of pregnancy and post birth. Being financially strong one can easily face the difficulties during and after pregnancy.

Maternity insurance not part of regular health policy

In such a situation, a health policy along with maternity insurance can be helpful. However, maternity insurance is not a part of your regular health policy by default. Although, some insurers have started offering maternity insurance as a comprehensive health policy, many offer it as an add-on to the policy. Thus, without examining the features of the policy, many people buy a health policy thinking that maternity facility is a part of the policy.

But they should know that maternity insurance provides coverage for all types of pregnancy related expenses till the term of the policy exists. Most of the insurance companies also provide antenatal and postnatal expenses and newborn baby expenses. Delivery cost means medical expenses related to ultrasound, doctor's fees, medicines, routine check-ups etc. It is not included as the default coverage under your health insurance plan, but comes as an add-on feature for some health policies. 

Insurers treat pregnancy as a pre-existing condition

Indranil Chatterjee, Co-Founder, Renewbuy, says that childbirth is a costly affair these days. The cost of a standard delivery or a caesarean section can range from 40,000 to 2 lakhs. He said, “A regular health policy will not be enough to bear the huge cost of maternity care and antenatal and postpartum treatment. This will cover basic charges of doctor, hospitalization, which will not serve the purpose of consumers.

Hence, insurance companies have introduced maternity insurance as a separate cover to cover the cost of end-to-end treatment and ensure that the entire pregnancy process is comfortable for the consumers." It should also be kept in mind that most of the insurance companies do not offer maternity based insurance for availing the policy after pregnancy. Rakesh Goyal, director, Probus Insurance, explains that many insurers consider pregnancy as a pre-existing condition and only three to three years. She is covered only after the waiting period of four years, hence, maternity coverage cannot be availed during pregnancy.