Maternity Health Insurance

[Framework]

Hi All,

Hoping for some advice..Me and my wife are planning to start trying for a baby in the near furture .Her current plan is with Quinn Essential Plus Starter..I have copied the outline of their benfits for maternity below....


Is this sufficient cover in peoples opinions?
Or should we look at upgrading her plan before ? Im guessing there is some sort of a waiting list?

Cover --

Maternity Benefits

We will pay a generous benefit for each delivery in private or semi-private participating hospital accommodation.
Essential Plus Starter scheme members are covered for up to three nights accommodation up to a maximum of €3,500.
We will also pay Consultants' fees for a normal delivery up to €863.86 (including epidural).
Consultants must be participating in our full cover scheme. Please ask us for details or click here to check if your Consultant takes part in our full cover scheme.
If you decide to have your baby at home we will then pay a benefit of up to €3,500.

 

[huskerdu]

This is fairly similar to other plans I think.
You should be aware, that if you choose to see a consultant as a private patient, the fee for prenatal care will be approx 3K to 4K, in any of the Dublin hospitals. Might be a bit cheaper down the country, but probably not by much.

This is not covered by any plan from any health insurance company in Ireland. The max you will get for this is a few hundred.

Only the fee for the delivery is fully covered.

Also, all plans cover 3 nights in hospital. If you need to stay longer, youru stay is covered, if you have a valid medical reason.

I ended up in hospital for 4 nights, but there was no serious medical reason for this, so I ended up paying 800 for the extra night.

AFAIK, the scan is not covered, nor the pathology fees but I;m sure someone else can give more up to date figures on the details,

 

[NovaFlare77]

One other thing to consider is that this plan doesn't appear to cover the Mount Carmel Hospital, so if your wife had the baby there, nothing would be covered. In case you don't know, the Mount Carmel is a private hospital in Dublin.

Other that than, assuming the relevant waiting periods have already been served, she should have full cover for up to 3 nights in any public hospital, in either a private or semi private room. I'd recommend checking cover with Quinn anyway, just so you have a record of them telling you what the cover is.

Also, if you're a PAYE worker, you'll be able to claim tax relief on any hospital or doctor charges you pay yourself (that didn't change yesterday, did it??).

Another option again is the possibility of going as a public patient. Public maternity patients aren't charged for anything. Two of my sisters went publicly, in Cork and Waterford, when having their kids and had no complaints.