Want mediclaim for your newborn baby? Read this

One of my cousins broke the news to me that he was going to be a father soon. Knowing my penchant for advance planning, he proudly mentioned that they had contacted a cord blood bank (where stem cells are stored) and were going to bank the umbilical cord just when the baby arrives. This is to ensure that in the unfortunate event of the baby contracting any genetic or any other life-threatening diseases in the future, the stem cells would be available for transplants so that new healthy blood cells are manufactured and enhance the child's blood-producing and immune system capability.

I congratulated him on his farsightedness and asked him whether he had thought about health insurance for his newly born child just in case the child had any health complications immediately on birth. At this my cousin got a little annoyed and expressed displeasure about my being morbid about the future.

So when a family has a baby, everybody becomes busy in welcoming the newborn into the family and celebrating the occasion. Hardly any of us would give a thought about buying a health insurance cover for the child. But when a child is born, unfortunately, at least a few of them will suffer from complications that might involve extensive hospitalization, which can be very expensive.

In such cases apart from the trauma of having to deal with the child's ill health, the family will also be worried about the hospital bills. This is where farsighted people like my cousin should arm themselves to deal with the financial implications of such an eventuality.

There are various health insurance policies available in India as we know but not all would cover your child from day one of birth. Most of them are available only after the child is at least 90 days old which clearly shows that most insurance companies are not ready to take the risk to cover a child below 90 days because the risk may be too high.

Our research showed that only three insurance companies in India are covering the newborn child from day one of birth. They also have certain conditions associated with them but coverage in any form is better than not having a cover at all.

Click NEXT to read about the three policies that cover newborn babies.

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Max Bupa HeartBeat

This policy will cover the newborn from the first day of birth till the next renewal only when the company pays for the maternity benefits of the birth.

The maternity benefits are covered only where the maternity claims have been paid. The policy will also cover the cost of vaccination for all the newborn for the first year subject to the same condition mentioned above.

In case the mother is not insured under the policy, one can also buy a new health insurance policy for the newborn baby after birth, which will cover all the medical expenses of the baby like a regular mediclaim policy but if the child has any known complications at birth then the policy proposal may be rejected.

The maternity expenses will be covered after a period of 2 years in this policy.

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Apollo Munich Easy Health

The exclusive and premium variants of this policy will cover the newborn on payment of extra premium subject to maternity benefits being paid. The maternity benefits are payable if the insured person is hospitalised during the policy period as an inpatient for a newborn baby provided that first we have accepted a claim for maternity expenses.

The maternity expenses will be covered after a period of 4 years in this policy.

Star Health Medi Classic

This policy covers the newborn baby from day one but for this benefit, they charge an extra premium of 10% over and above the regular premium under their family package. Also the sum assured with respect to the hospitalisation expenses of the child are restricted to a maximum of 10% of the sum insured of mother.

This cover will lapse when the child becomes five months old and then the parents need to include the child in their regular family package policy.

Other than these three policies, you can add your child in your regular mediclaim policy or buy an individual mediclaim policy for the child only after your newborn baby is three months old for most of the health insurance policies available in the market. But this clause also comes with certain conditions.

Some of the insurance companies have a condition according to which they will offer health insurance only to babies whose either of the parents or both the parents are insured under the same policy.

In case you include the child in a family floater policy, then at the earliest possible opportunity you should shift the child to her/his own individual mediclaim policy. This is because after the child reaches the age of 21 or 25 (depends from policy to policy) your child will not be a part of your floater policy anymore.

At that point of time they will have to buy an individual health insurance policy for themselves. In case of health insurance, medical history becomes a very important part whenever a claim arises. And while buying a new policy, the medical history for the past years would be lost, as the new policy will not consider past medical history of your child.

Most health insurance policies will cover your child only if the maternity expenses are paid and these expenses will be paid after specific waiting period as mentioned above with the coverage details.

So in case you are planning to start a family in near future, then you need to plan for the health insurance of your child.