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About Pregnancy Insurance During the Probation Period

Having a baby can be exciting and rewarding, but it is often one of the biggest medical costs that the average person incurs. When you have the option of buying maternity coverage to help with pregnancy costs, your insurance company will likely have a probationary period involved. During this period, you cannot get pregnant if you want the insurance company to cover it.

  1. Group Plans

    • When you are covered by group health insurance plan, you should not have to worry about a probationary period. With health insurance plans, pregnancy is not considered to be a pre-existing condition, which means that you can join the group after you are already pregnant and still be covered. If you have to switch jobs, this can be a major benefit; as you can still get a big portion of your maternity bills paid for by the insurance company.

    Individual Plans

    • When you do not work for an employer that has a group plan, you may need to purchase an individual health insurance plan. If this is the case, the plan may not cover pregnancy on its own. Many individual health insurance plans require you to purchase an additional maternity coverage rider. With most riders of this type, you must pay premiums for several months before the benefits kick in. If you get pregnant before the probationary period is up, you can get your premiums refunded.

    Pre-Paying Costs

    • One of the drawbacks of a probationary period with health insurance is that it essentially amounts to prepaying your pregnancy costs. For example, with many insurance plans, you have to pay premiums for up to one year before you can get pregnant. You could just as easily wait a year and save that amount of money to put toward your pregnancy costs. When you get pregnant, the rider will not cover everything, which means you will have to pay some additional money out-of-pocket even if you are covered.

    Planning Ahead

    • When dealing with health insurance and pregnancy, it pays to plan ahead. If you do not have health insurance coverage in place when you get pregnant, it can be difficult to be covered. In this situation, you may have to pay for the entire delivery out of your own pocket. If you know that you want to have a child, look at your health insurance options several months in advance. This could help you find a plan that will provide affordable coverage and limit your out-of-pocket expenses in the future.

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