words Alexa Wang
You’re expecting a baby and you want to do the right thing for your health for both you and your baby. That means living well, eating the right foods and supplements, and, of course, accessing the best medical care possible is important. But what options are available to women who are pregnant when it comes to health insurance?
In order to get the medical attention that you need, either before or during childbirth, for a successful pregnancy, you’ll have to go through one of the available channels to get health insurance. This can be a somewhat daunting challenge as you move through the maze-like regulations and seemingly endless paperwork.
To help you choose the right insurance policy for you and your coming baby, we’ve put together this guide to help you through the process step-by-step.
What is a Healthcare Marketplace?
A healthcare marketplace is any exchange run by the government, either federal or state, that shows expectant mothers available insurance plans, details about those plans, and qualifications. Healthcare.gov is home to the most well-known healthcare exchange marketplaces.
Because of different laws between states, some exchanges are run by the federal government and some are run independently by states. To find your own marketplace, you can simply search for a healthcare marketplace for your state online.
Aside from government-run exchanges, be sure to check out highly reputable exchanges such as AHiX Marketplace for alternative insurance policies.
Finding Available Plans
After you’ve found your marketplace, it’s time to look at individual plans and choose one that you works for you. In the policy details, you will be able to find what specific doctors or hospitals are available to you when you purchase a plan.
If you have a specific doctor or hospital in mind for your birth, as many mothers do, you’ll want to make sure that the insurance policy covers them. Choosing “out of network” doctors or clinics, meaning visiting a provider that is not under the coverage of your insurance plan, can be extremely costly, so it’s important to know the details of your plan before purchasing one.
Narrowing Down Options
Once you have identified which policies cover your preferred doctor and hospital, you should then figure out which plan you can afford on your budget. The ideal plan for you will be the one with the lowest deductibles and copayments (money you have to pay out of pocket) combined with the coverage of your preferred doctor or hospital. Make a running list of options to narrow your choice down even further.
Researching Insurance Policies
Not all policies are created equal. Some insurance companies have better reputations than others. Some make navigating their bureaucracy easier, while others have a well-established track record of opaque and hard-to-understand processes for patients that make processing your claims successfully difficult.
The web is chock full of horror stories by insurance customers attempting to get their medical bills covered. You can avoid these major headaches by reviewing insurance companies online.
You can also find personal stories from individual customers as well as comprehensive reviews from third-party sites. Make sure you visit a few different reviewers to get a more balanced perspective.
Reading the Fine Print
The legal forms that everyone must sign and agree to could mean the difference between being covered for your pregnancy-related hospital visits or not. Insurance companies have teams of lawyers whose primary jobs are crafting legal language that the company could potentially use down the road to deny coverage to patients. In your case, you should specifically be looking for clauses that deal with pregnancies.
Many providers offer a handy guide to how much having a baby would cost under their plan. They will explain which procedures related to your pregnancy are covered and which ones are not, so be sure to check the fine print before purchasing an insurance policy.
Get Covered
If you are pregnant, you need to be covered. Having a baby without health insurance could cost tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt that you don’t need as you begin to build a new life for you and your baby. Finding the right health insurance plans can take away the financial burden of pregnancy while allowing you to focus on delivering a healthy, happy baby.
