Is there a baby on the way? Congratulations!

The best coverage is for students or spouses of students (sorry everyone else!). Some of these policies have no wait period (if they cover maternity; please be careful here). Conception, however, must occur after the start date of the plan and some do have a waiting period after the start of the plan. Many institutions require coverage for maternity, so this can be useful to know even if you are not considering getting pregnant (or are a guy; apparently the requirement is still there — go figure).

Not all policies allow a spouse to be covered, so if the person is on F2 visa and not a student themselves, this can be extra tricky. Since this sort of immediate coverage is only available for students, it may be worth purchasing a policy for both the F1 and F2 in order to get coverage for the F2 spouse since otherwise, the coverage is not nearly as good (read on past student options for details).

The policy for the primary F1 person will act as a "secondary" insurance to whatever they already have, so it will not hurt the situation, but it will allow coverage for the spouse. However, many international pregnancy insurance plans cost more for the dependent spouse than the primary insured. The prices I have put on this blog are for a 25 year old for one month just by way of an example figure.

For the INF plans which cover maternity, conception must occur after the start of the plan.

INF Premier insurance is a fixed plan which must be purchased for at least 3 months. The plan with $100,000 maximum will cover up to $5,000 for childbirth while the $150,000 maximum plan will cover up to $5500. This plan also offers “full” coverage for pre-existing conditions which has a separate deductible of $1000 or $5000.

The following prices are for a policy deductible of $250. The plan with a $100,000 maximum and $1000 pre-ex deductible will cost about $79 per month while the $150,000 policy will cost $89 per month.

INF Standard is another fixed plan offered by INF. It does not cover pre-existing conditions at all, but has coverage for pregnancy and childbirth in the amount of $4,500 for the plan with $50,000 maximum, $5000 for the plan with the $100,000 maximum and $5,500 for the plan with the $150,000 maximum. This plan with a $250 deductible will cost about $47 for the $50k max policy, $61 for the $100k max policy, or $68 for the $150,000 max policy.

International Long-Term Plans

Long-Term insurance plans are ones that you sign up for a year at a time. You can choose, at the time of purchase, to pay monthly, semi-annually, bi-annually or annually. The cost is slightly less to purchase maternity insurance USA plans annually (that is, with a single payment per year). These plans, unlike short-term or student plan, are not guaranteed, so an extensive application must be submitted to the company's underwriting. They can do several things with an application. They can:

1. accept the application (ideally),
2. deny the application, or
3. accept the application,but add riders to exclude coverage of certain conditions or additional premium to have coverage of certain medical conditions.

In any case, you have 10 days after their acceptance to cancel your application for a full refund. Any additional riders will have to be signed by you in order to accept the policy with their additional conditions. The applications ask extensive medical questions of your entire medical history, so be prepared for that to take some time and have as much information on hand before you start the application.

Also, they may ask for a check up by your primary care physician and/or your medical records. You will have to sign a waiver to allow them access to your medical records given the laws surrounding the protection of this information. A great advantage of these plans is that after you are accepted on them, you are guaranteed coverage year after year, usually up to a maximum age. The only increase in cost will be due to your changing age and increases in cost in health care; so your rates don't go up of you get sick or are diagnosed with a condition.

The best coverage we have for maternity coverage is offered by Global Medical Platinum which has a 10 month wait period for maternity coverage. That means, that conception cannot occur until you are 10 months or more into the plan. This plan is not guaranteed and an application must go through underwriting.

Starting the 10th month of the policy, it will cover URC (usual, reasonable, and customary) charges relating to a pregnancy as any other illness with a $50,000 maximum lifetime maximum and an additional $2,500 deductible. This plan will cost about $268 per month for a 25 yr old with a $1000 deductible.

Well, that's it, folks! That summarizes the coverage for pregnancy that we offer for students and visitors both coming to the US and traveling abroad. Whatever your plans, we wish you well and hope you have found this article useful! Do check out some answers to the queries about maternity coverage options asked by our customers which may be similar to yours. Thanks for letting me think happy spring thoughts through the dreariness of winter!

As ever, we wish you safe and healthy travels!