How to Get Health Insurance If Trying to Get Pregnant

Pregnancy is an exciting time to prepare for the new addition to your family. However, the medical care for you and your unborn baby can be quite expensive over the nine-month gestation period. To help ease the cost of having a baby, health insurance with maternity coverage is available. The best time to get maternity coverage is when you begin to consider having a baby. To get health insurance if trying to get pregnant, you may have to comply with waiting periods that can delay your plans.

Instructions

• 1

  Enroll in group coverage through your employer. HIPAA federal regulations require group health plans to cover pregnancy at any stage if maternity coverage is included in the health insurance package. If the group plan does not offer maternity coverage as part of its health insurance package, the business is not required to purchase maternity coverage just because you're pregnant. Make sure you know the dates you can enroll because most group plans don't have open enrollment available year-round.

• 2

  Consider COBRA, which will bridge the gap created when you leave a group health insurance plan. If you're trying to get pregnant, signing up for COBRA allows you to continue the group health insurance offered by your employer until you find replacement insurance. COBRA is expensive; it usually costs more than what you previously paid in premiums. Employers with at least 20 employees are required to offer COBRA, but smaller businesses don't have to provide this as an option.

• 3

  Sign up for maternity coverage with an individual health insurance plan. Most individual insurance plans allow you to add maternity coverage for an additional fee.

• 4

  Wait the appropriate waiting period to enjoy coverage. When you add maternity coverage to your individual health insurance plan, expect a waiting period of six months to one year before you can get pregnant. If you get pregnant during that waiting period, the insurer may not pay any of your claims.

• 5

  Fork over some cash if you don't want to wait. There are individual health insurance plans available that cover pregnancy without a waiting period, but they're going to cost you significantly more than policies with a waiting period. Because insurers know they'll likely be paying claims over the next months, they charge you much higher premiums.