If you are new to the World of Expat Health Insurance, one of the first things you need to know is that young family health insurance can be very expensive! If you don’t do your homework then you may find yourself paying well over the odds to insure your kids. Why so expensive you may ask?
From an insurance company perspective, young children can be very expensive in terms of paid claims. Children are more likely to have accidents, and when they get sick, they are often admitted into the hospital. No one takes chances with a sick baby, so Doctors do not hesitate in being over cautious.
Once we talk inpatient, claims start to escalate. So, expensive claims equals expensive premiums. Typically you can expect child premiums to start reducing once they turn 5.
Perhaps one of the largest issues we have at Seek2Insure with young families is when people have children and want to have more, meaning they need to retain maternity benefits. Whilst logic would say, OK, we can set up the children on a lower level plan and leave mum with the maternity benefit, in practice this rarely works. The reason being that most providers require children to be attached to a parents plan with the same benefits.
A work around we often apply is to set the children up on the father’s plan, leaving the mother with the medical benefits. It is also possible to set children up on their own plans, but the stand alone child option is an expensive way of providing child medical insurance.
We are often asked about adding newborn children into a plan. So here is how it works…Some insurers will add a baby into a plan from day one, some will require you to wait for a set period, often 15 days, before you do this. In either scenario, conditions which are present at birth will not be covered. The only way to ensure a seamless transfer of cover is to take out a high level maternity plan which allows for the newborn baby to be added into cover.
People often ask if routine vaccinations and regular check ups for children can be covered. This is classed as wellness, which is not generally covered under standard health insurance. When you factor in the added premium you’ll pay to access this level of cover, you may find that self-insuring these issues is the best way forward.
Discounts! Having a large family can allow you to leverage discounts with some insurers. Some offer an increasing discount as your family size increases, some offer no discount at all, and some offer special pricing for families such as ‘buy one, get one’. Taking advantage of family friendly pricing can make a huge difference!
Here at Seek2Insure, helping young families find the most cost effective health insurance plans for their needs is a large part of what we do. Give us a call and let us get to know you! We can make some suggestions which will hopefully leave you protected against high cost claims, in a way which does not break the bank!
