Social Health Insurance

I guess you already know that it is a lot easier to find health insurance well before you get pregnant. A typical job related group policy should cover maternity very well. If you can obtain group medical coverage from an employer, HIPAA laws may protect your access to the plan even if you are pregnant. If you already have a job, and did not take the insurance, call your HR department to find out what your options are. If you need to find a new job with group benefits, this situation will get a lot more sticky. While employers should not discriminate, trying to get hired while pregnant is not an ideal situation. Of course, a spouse with an employer based group medical plan that covers maternity would work too.

Keep in mind that not everybody qualifies for this HIPAA protection. For one thing, you usually have to be able to prove you had prior coverage within a certain time limit. The laws were intended to protect people, but not to allow people to just run out and get insurance when they needed it. This is not how insurance works. You do not buy car insurance after you have an accident. Continue reading →