Author: Dr Renata Pajewska-Kwaśny
Pregnancy and childbirth are special events in the life of a woman and her entire family. The experience of this period is the subject of many ladies’ memories long after the experience. But if it is so important, exciting and special, can we prepare for it properly and take care of all its aspects?
The time of waiting for the birth is most often associated with preparing the room for the baby, buying the right accessories to make it easier to take care of the baby, studying how-to books and professional literature to help the mother-to-be and her relatives to cope with the new situation.
Preparations also include health issues, including keeping the pregnant woman in good shape. Many women take an appropriate diet long before becoming pregnant. They check their blood results and other health parameters and change their lifestyle to prepare their bodies for this extraordinary challenge.
Health issues undoubtedly dominate this special period. It is also worth focusing on the financial threads associated with this new challenge as part of the preparations. In all of this, it is important that the parents-to-be, despite the great stress, emotions and enormous unknowns they are facing, take care to ensure their safety, comfort and certainty that they will be able to take advantage of additional help at any time, especially medical, but also financial.
When planning to expand your family, it is worth considering the option of taking out special health insurance dedicated to pregnant women. Thanks to this insurance, professional, specialised health care will be guaranteed both during these nine special months, during childbirth and in the postnatal period. This will ensure that the young mother and her child are well protected without worrying about the costs involved.
Although, according to the law, every pregnant woman and child up to the age of 18 in Poland is guaranteed health care within the framework of the National Health Fund (NFZ), many people choose to use commercial health care services during this period. Access is faster in many cases, the range of examinations is wider, and the time and attention given to a pregnant woman in a private practice gives a greater sense of security. In addition, there are many more factors that drive mothers-to-be to consult additional specialists. We simply want to be sure, much more than the proverbial 100 per cent, that our health and especially the development of the baby is going well and does not raise concerns in the opinion of every doctor we visit.
As usual in such a situation, we have a choice between two ways of ensuring our access to additional medical care: ad hoc visits to specialists, for which we pay for each consultation and diagnostic test carried out, or we opt for an appropriate protection programme, including pregnancy management, for which we pay the same monthly premium regardless of the number and frequency of services obtained.
If we choose the first course of action, it may turn out that already after the first trimester, the value of the bills paid for several visits and a dozen or so analyses plus an ultrasound examination – may significantly compromise the family budget, and this is only the beginning of our great pregnancy adventure.
It is therefore worth considering the choice of a well-chosen health insurance policy, guaranteeing coverage of healthcare costs in the commercial sector, which is dedicated to women expecting a baby. A well-chosen policy should, above all, be comprehensive: it should cover diagnosis and treatment during pregnancy, postnatal care for mum and baby and midwife consultations. It is also worth considering where the birth will take place and whether this can also be included in the insurance plan.
It should be noted that although many insurance companies offer health insurance, insurance dedicated to pregnant women is a niche product and only a few insurers have included it in their plan. In addition, it is worth paying attention to whether, when deciding to take out such insurance, you are not in a situation that prevents you from taking full advantage of the cover. I am referring here to ‘exclusions’, which may relate to a particular health condition of a woman planning to become pregnant or her age.
We most often associate the word insurance with risk, something unexpected, surprising, additional costs, loss. Can we think of insurance during pregnancy in this context? How do we juxtapose and reconcile these two associations? After all, a fundamental principle in insurance is that you cannot take out cover in the face of an event that is certain and predictable. Therefore, in order to provide yourself with protection in the form of medical cover during pregnancy – you need to meet one basic condition: before you can enjoy the benefits of such a policy, you need to buy it a few months or even 1 year before you find yourself in a different state. This so-called grace period is determined by each insurer on its individual terms and conditions.
Thus, insurance also encourages us to start thinking about important life issues such as building a house, buying a car and, above all, planning a family much earlier than the occurrence of circumstances that can sometimes take us by surprise.
Author:
Dr Renata Pajewska-Kwaśny, Department of Risk and Insurance, Institute of Risk and Financial Markets, Warsaw School of Economics
