Maternity Coverage Riders
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When shopping for insurance online, you have to do your research carefully. Many of the online quotes do not show maternity coverage, but if you click to look at the details of the plan, some plans will have an option to add a maternity rider. However, beware of any insurance agent that will tell you it will cover your pregnancy. Many of these maternity riders have long waiting periods before they take effect and the benefits they pay are almost always limited.
For example, a healthy women in her mid 20's can expect to pay a additional premium of $110 to $200 a month for maternity insurance. The waiting periods usually range from 12 to 15months before the benefits kick in and are limited based on how long you waited. Taking the information from a heath insurance's brochure Found, their maternity option pays $4,000 in benefits after waiting 2years with a premium of $106.40. If you do the math, 24 months of waiting plus 9 months of pregnancy is 33 months. After 33 months, you would have paid $3511.20 in additional premiums. But if you don't get pregnant the month your benefits start, you still are paying the additional premium without an increase in benefits. After 38 months,you would have paid more than the $4000 in benefits. Many insurance plans with riders are structured like this. It seems like its more of a deal for the insurance company than the insured.
The moral is: "read the fine print". Many of these maternity riders do not even cover a fraction of the cost of pregnancy. In many cases, saving the money yourself would be a better deal.
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