| By :
Marilyn Katz
One big concern about health insurance is with pregnant women, and also for couples that would like to plan to have a baby. All of the doctor visits, tests, and hospital care to have a healthy baby can cost thousands of dollars. If more care is needed, those costs can multiply. How can people afford to have a baby without help? Of course, everybody's first answer is to have group health insurance that covers maternity. Most group plans, provided by employers, do cover maternity. If a couple is lucky enough to have a good group medical plan, they should not have that many out of pocket costs to worry about. But millions of Americans lack group health. Small business people, self employed professionals, or unemployed workers will not have any employer health benefits. Many of these people do buy individual health insurance on their own. This is fine for normal medical coverage, but it may not cover maternity. While major medical should cover any complications of pregnancy, it may not cover normal doctor visits, tests, and the delivery. Some plans may have a pregnancy rider (option) that can be selected. This must be selected before a woman is pregnant, and it does have an extra cost. This will not eliminate out of pocket costs though. The deductible is usually fairly high too, but at least, it will protect the family against very high costs. For people with some savings, but without maternity insurance, a pre-paid plan may help. Some doctors or hospitals offer these plans so the costs of maternity health care can be planned for. For families with a low or moderate income, the CHIPS program covers pregnant women. CHIPs is the federal health insurance program for children from lower income families, and it has been expanded to cover women who are pregnant. If you want to know more about this, search online for your state office. Medicaid is the federal and state health program for the poor, so if you have few assets and little income, it may cover you. Medicaid is the federal health program for very poor people who do not have many assets. You could also look for low cost clinics or county health systems in your area. Some private charities provide financial aid for people with different health issues too. The Partnership for Prescription Assistance (PPARX.org) has a lot of handy resources to find local help in your own city or town. It may take some work to find the right solution, but help is out there. Some people may feel too proud to seek outside help. But, in my opinion, at this time, if somebody in your family is pregnant, the important thing is to make sure she has great health care. The woman's health, and the baby's health, are the important things to consider. That will help everybody get back on track in the future, and it will do more good in the long run.
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