Thursday, November 11, 2010

Can I get health insurance and plan on getting pregnant after few months?

I'm thinking of getting a personal health insurance myself. My husband have one but he will be changing his job soon, and it could be a while until he get another insurance. And in between those dates, we're thinking of trying to conceive. Will an insurance cover pregnancy expenses if you only have them for less than a year? If not, what are my options? Thanks for infos.
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You definitely need to look into private policies to see how long the waiting period is for maternity before either a) your husband quits his job or b) you get pregnant. Unfortunately in this day and age, insurance, not when we want to, dictates our timelines on just about everything. Such as when we get pregnant, when we can quit our job, when we can start a new job, and when we can retire. You don't say why your husband is changing jobs, but here is my humble advice: (and this is assuming you are covered for maternity), I would either wait to have a baby (possibly a year), or your husband should stay at his job to keep the insurance. I don't know what state you live in, but I believe that most policies are the same. More and more policies are making people wait one full year before they will cover any maternity benefits. I think a year is ridiculous but in a way, you can see their point. Women would get on for a month, pay a few hundred bucks, get them to pay for a $12,000 pregnancy, then the woman drops the insurance the day after the baby's born. Like I said, please check before you get pregnant because I think a one year waiting period is becoming the norm instead of the exception. Another problem that's happening more and more is employers dropping maternity insurance altogether. It has become so ridiculously expensive that its hard for them to pay. This has happened to me personally. The job I've had for 7 years which has always had maternity coverage dropped it at the beginning of the year. If any of us girls happened to get pregnant, we're on our own. My husband also just started a new job so we looked at how good his insurance was to see if I should switch. It doesn't offer any maternity benefits either. Honestly I don't know what women are supposed to do. You do the right thing and have insurance, and nobody will cover your maternity. Looks like insurance companies and employers just expect medicaid to cover the costs. Sorry so long, but I don't want you to be caught without any coverage! Good luck to you on starting your family.
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