Getting quality prenatal and postnatal care in India is quite expensive. Thus, every woman must consider investing in health insurance with maternity cover before planning her motherhood journey. Notable health insurers, like Care Health Insurance, offer customized maternity covers. Maternity health insurance plans provide a vital financial cover when a family’s expenses are expected to rise during pregnancy.

Financial planning for this phase of life should start with assessing your healthcare needs. Then, you can compare the different policies available online before selecting a maternity cover.

Ideally, your maternity insurance policy should provide you with the following benefits:

1. Cover for Hospitalization & Delivery Expenses

The foremost thing to check in a maternity plan is the coverage for hospitalization & delivery. In health insurance with maternity cover, in-patient care, including room rent, ICU charges, is covered up to the sum insured. Select the right sum insured after estimating your overall medical expense and get adequate cover for your hospital bills. If you are in a metro city, the costs are likely to go up.

2. Cover for Pre and Post Hospitalization Expenses

A mother-to-be does need quality prenatal and postnatal care that involves medication, doctor visits, and diagnostic tests. Under a maternity insurance plan, these expenses are covered under pre-hospitalization and post-hospitalization benefits for 30 days and 60 days, respectively.

3. Cover for Newborn

The best part of maternity health insurance is that the insured gets coverage for new-born for a defined period. It is usually for 90 days. Thus, when finding a good policy with maternity benefits, make sure this feature is included. Some policies also cover health issues like birth defects.

4. Minimum Waiting Period

Some maternity-specific plans have a long waiting of up to 6 years. However, if you carefully search, you can get the best maternity insurance with a low waiting period of 9 months - for example, ‘Joy’ offered by Care Health Insurance. Due to this waiting period factor, you should plan and get a maternity policy as early as possible.

5. Cashless Treatment

With maternity health cover, you can get medical care on a cashless basis. All you require is to find a network hospital in the vicinity. For this, check your insurer’s network hospitals list. It will give you information about the nearest hospitals that you can approach in an emergency. Select an insurer having a maximum number of network hospitals.

Additional Benefits to Look for

By investing in health insurance with maternity cover, you get coverage for any medical treatment due to various illnesses in addition to maternity benefits. This way, you can ensure complete protection for your loved ones. Further, as an insured, you also get other benefits and add-on options. Some plans also cover advanced treatments.

Finally, when you have found the ideal maternity cover, it is your responsibility to check the policy terms and conditions. It is a crucial step in your buying journey and ensures you do not face any trouble later, thus, preventing claim rejections. Besides the waiting period, also check the exclusions and co-payment clause. Staying financially secure should be your goal when planning for pregnancy. Follow this guide and select the best maternity insurance policy today!