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Insuring a Hassle-free Pregnancy

Know Your Insurance Options Before You Conceive

By Kelly Burgess

), which will give you a good grounding in the basics of insurance.

Once you know what is and isn't covered, you can look for ways to minimize your out-of-pocket costs. "Some employers offer multiple choices in insurance, and if you've chosen a plan with no maternity coverage you may be able to change plans before you get pregnant," Dr. Cutler says.

Along the same lines, says Renee Guariglia, a medical insurance broker for the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of New York (IIABNY), it may be to your benefit to switch to your husband's insurance if you both have coverage through your employers.

However, this may mean delaying the pregnancy until that change is in effect, as most companies have open enrollment only once a year and you're committed to that plan until the following insurance term. Pregnancy is considered a pre-existing condition and will not be covered if you become insured while already pregnant.

The one exception to that rule is a federal law that only applies if you already have pregnancy insurance, are pregnant and change insurance due to a job change or some other unavoidable event while pregnant. However, Dr. Cutler says, this only applies if there has been no lapse in coverage, so even if you have to continue your coverage for a time with a COBRA plan, it's worth it.

If pregnancy is covered by your plan, find out exactly how extensive that coverage is. The best way to do this, according to Guariglia, is to bypass human resources, who may not have the most accurate information, and contact the insurance company, or your insurance broker, directly. "The people in human resources have a lot of irons in the fire, and it's easy fr them to misread something or make a mistake or wrong assumption," she says. "They're not insurance experts. The people at the insurance company are experts, and it's their job to know the policy inside and out."

Want to see more?

• Insurance Coverage During Pregnancy: Advice from Health Insurance Experts to Pregnant Moms
• The Price of Parenthood: 4 Steps to Financing Fertility
• Facing Uninsured Pregnancy: Tips to Help You Make An Uninsured Pregnancy Work
• The Cost of Having a Baby: Why Some Moms-to-be Choose Home Birth, Midwife or Other Alternative Birth Methods
• Join the discussion on our Family.com community!