Figuring out "maternity" coverage

F

flagler1

New member
Hello all -- My wife and I are Americans (arrived in Dec) looking to start a family early next year (our first).

Talking with friends about our plans, folks mentioned that we need to get better insurance. Now having looking into insurance plans with maternity coverage, I've run into the issue of the waiting periods. I see that we could get some with 8 or 10 month waiting periods, which should work okay for our planned timeline, at least for the delivery. But I'm wondering about the costs for check ups and doctor visits in the earlier stages of pregnancy.

Both our jobs provide health insurance, though the policies are pretty paltry -- with only 500 HKD reimbursements for doctor visits, and no maternity coverage to speak of from what I can tell. But I'm wondering, would our employer provided insurance cover my wife's doctor visits (or at least help some) until the maternity policy kicks in? What qualifies as "maternity coverage"? Any and all medical treatment while she is pregnant? Any advice for how best to deal with this would be appreciated.

Many thanks!
 
I gave birth on the public system. 5 check ups, 3 blood tests, 1 NT scan, 1 anatomy scan, 4 steroid injections, 4 admittances, 12 nights in hospital, 4 ultra sounds, 1 emergency cesarean = hk $1200.


Giving birth in hk is as cheap or as expensive as you want to make it.
 
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Hi Aquarian -- Thanks for your reply. We are looking into the public system. While we know we'd receive high quality medical care, our concern is we might want a higher level of personalized service, comfort and bedside manner. I neglected to mention we lived in HK back in 06-07, and my wife had surgery at a public hospital. While everything was fine, there were times where we just didn't know what was going on, which was a bit unsettling.
 
Your insurance won't cover obstetrician check ups or ultrasounds, blood tests etc unless you have maternity cover. Anything related to 'being pregnant' would be excluded.
 
Most HK companies do not provide Maternity coverage, and prenatal checks are usually not covered. You can however use the public system while you're waiting? This is almost free.
 
Hi Rani -- Thanks for the reply. Ok, so I am that gathering our employer insurance is pretty worthless (which I think I already knew), and we will either use the public system or pay out of pocket for private doctor until our maternity coverage kicks in. I guess if we went with the public system at first, we'd have to change doctors at some point? Hopefully that would be okay.
 
i would think every company's policy is different so the best is to check with your employer's insurer on your question regarding coverage?

as for getting your own insurance, i have done some research and my conclusion is that it's not worth buying insurance with maternity coverage - the premium is huge and a lot of the policies have a cap on maternity coverage. So you are really paying for what you could get out of the policy. Am not really an insurance expert so the best is to speak to an insurance broker who will help analyze your situation and advise what is suitable. good luck!
 
Hi Mothers,

I got integra-global insurance, for maternity part is 100% covered, including the prenatal check-ups, just requires 12 months waiting period, I am 5w6d pregnant, I planned to pay part of my prenatal check-ups for the following 5 months before my maternity waiting period finished, the rest check-ups are all been covered under my insurance type. So maybe you can do some research online, some insurance companies has a shorter waiting period like 10 months but charge a little bit more.

Good luck!


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