Why You Should Get Health Insurance If You’re Thinking Of Becoming Pregnant

November 4th, 2009

Being pregnant is not meant to be easy. Being pregnant without health coverage is significantly harder. The frustrating thing is that no one wants to go uninsured if she has a choice about it, and often women become pregnant by accident, so the fair conclusion should be that insurance companies would be understanding of uninsured pregnant women.

That is not the case.

In reality Obtaining insurance for pregnant women is hard. Why? The official explanation is because the pregnancy is treated as a pre-existing condition, a reason that causes countless people to struggle to get health coverage (i.e. if someone has AIDS, getting health insurance and does not possess insurance might prove to be virtually impossible as well).

On one hand, it is easy to understand the health provider’s view point: nine months of pregnancy can cost quite a fortune: visits to the physician, standard screenings, the risk of complications and not to mention the delivery itself. However, pregnancy is a natural fact of life, and in this day and age we should expect that there be regulations assisting women obtain health coverage if they find out they are pregnant and are uninsured.

Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case - there is no law requiring insurance companies to help women in this situation. Many women would not even ask for a low cost medical insurance but would compromise for whatever they get - but alas, even that is not a trivial task.

The good news is that there are several programs that offer maternity coverage for women, as well as programs that are insurance-like (which cover the entire pregnancy and delivery) - essentially, these are good enough.

In our site, The Guide to Health, we offer a couple of articles that elaborate on the options available for women in this condition as well as offer links to one such a program. Hopefully, you, the reader, are not uninsured and pregnant - but if you are, this site can really help you.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Posted in Health | No Comments »

Why You Should Obtain Health Insurance If You’re Thinking Of Becoming Pregnant

October 2nd, 2009

Being pregnant is not meant to be simple. Being pregnant without insurance is significantly harder. The frustrating thing is that no woman wants to be uninsured if they have a choice about it, and often women become pregnant by accident, so the fair conclusion would be that health insurance providers would be understanding of uninsured pregnant women.

That is not the case.

In reality Obtaining insurance for pregnant women is very hard. Why? The ‘formal’ explanation is because the pregnancy is viewed as a preexisting condition, a reason that causes countless people to struggle to obtain health coverage (for example, if someone has Alzheimer, getting health coverage and does not possess insurance might prove to be very hard as well).

On one hand, it is possible to understand the health provider’s perspective: nine months of pregnancy can cost quite a lot: visits to the physician, standard screenings, the risk of complications and not to mention the delivery of the baby itself. However, pregnancy is a natural fact of life, and in this day and age we really should expect that there be laws assisting women get health insurance if they discover they are pregnant and do not possess health insurance.

Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case - there is no federal law requiring health insurance providers to help women in this situation. Many women would not even request for a low cost medical insurance but would compromise for whatever they get - but alas, even that is not a trivial task.

The good news is that there are multiple programs that offer maternity coverage for women, as well as programs that are insurance-like (which cover the entire pregnancy and delivery) - essentially, these are good enough.

In our site, The Guide to Health, we provide several articles that explain the options available for women in this situation as well as offer links to one such a program. Hopefully, you, the reader, are not uninsured and pregnant - but if you are, this site can really help you.

Tags: , , , , ,

Posted in Health | No Comments »