What is a Maternity Plan?

 Maternity Plan - What is it?

Have you heard of Maternity Insurance?

Do you know what it is and is it necessary?

First off, let us look into our MediSave & MediShield Life.

MediSave:

• Hospital charges
• You can use up to $550/day for the first 2 days of hospitalisation 
• and up to $400/day thereafter for daily ward charges, treatment, investigations and medicine
• Delivery charges
• You can use up to $750 for natural delivery
• $2150 for caesarean delivery 
• $2600 for complicated caesarean delivery 
• Pre-delivery expenses
• You can use up to $900 for procedures like ultrasounds, consultations, tests & medication.

MediShield Life (B2 ward and below)

• Daily ward and treatment - $800/day
• Pregnancy complications
• Congenital Abnormalities

Integrated Shield Plan (with private insurer)

Depending on the insurance plan you have, coverage varies for Pregnancy & Delivery related complications. 

So, from the above, we can see that our MediSave, MediShield Life and Integrated Shield Plan offer financial assistance (to a certain degree) if we are hospitalised due to pregnancy or delivery related complication, so do we still require a Maternity insurance?

Let's do a breakdown of what Maternity Insurance (MI) is all about.

Things you will find in MI:

• Pregnancy complications
• Hospital cash benefits for both the mummy & baby
• Congenital Illness of the baby
• Death

Different insurers have a different list of conditions they cover, you may want to check with different insurers.

Of course, MI may include (depending on insurer):

• Phototherapy
• Psychotherapy
• Assisted pregnancy
• More than 1 fetus
• Stem cell treatment
• Delay development 

MI gives parents and parent to be the extra financial aid. While our MediSave/Medishield may cover some of the cost, MI offers the consolation cash benefits. 

So if this cash benefits and other treatments are not important, why purchase MI?

Have you heard from people they are denied certain insurance or have additional loading or exclusions?

You may, and probably from people who are much older. But is an infant exempted from illnesses or birth defects totally?

Born with a hole in the heart. Heart valve malfunction. Blood related diseases.

The list can go on. 

Again, no parent wants that.

But what parents can do is to gift them the basic guarantee of an insurance (e.g. Whole life).

Whether is the child born healthy or not, the insurer will have to accept the insurance proposal from parents once they have the MI. 

It is not like the child will be healthy again with MI or any other life insurance the parents bought. 

But parents will know that

• At least my child is insured and covered against many of the child illness benefits a whole life plan offers
• At least my child will have a lump sum to help them or parents tide through in the event of a diagnosed Critical Illness or Total Permanent Disability

It is a guarantee that a parent can gift to their child in this expensive and uncertain economy. 

So is a Maternity Insurance important to a parent? 

As a parent myself, my advice, do get a MI. Give you and your child the additional insurance option.