A Guide to Insurance for the New Parents

Insurance--it's one of those things that so many of us take for granted. That is of course until it's taken away and we have to figure out how to furnish it on our own for our family. As new parents, you worry about so much and you want to make sure that insurance is not on that ever growing list. My husband and I were always working professionals who were lucky enough to have insurance provided to us by our companies, and we never really gave it a second thought. We were careful in our selection to ensure that we had proper coverage, particularly when we found out that I was pregnant. We wanted to be careful that all of my maternity visits were covered, and of course that everything was under control for the new baby.

We had taken and HMO through my husband's company that worked quite well for us throughout the pregnancy and through the delivery and birth. I was totally against HMO's as I had a bad experience with one earlier on, but the cost was reasonable and the coverage seemed fantastic. Was it too good to be true? I was nervous but it turned out to be wonderful. For the birth of my daughter, the entire hospital stay, her care, my care, and everything in between, we ended up paying a grand total of $28! This was what insurance was supposed to be about, and as new parents we were thrilled! Okay this would work out just fine, we had made the right decision with the insurance we selected.

We went for my daughter's first well baby visit, which of course is intimidating enough. Seeing my baby cry when she got her first shot was a very sad moment as a new parent. I think it creates more agony for us as new parents than it does for our baby, but we lived through it. The good news was that the HMO yet again did what insurance is supposed to do, and we paid only the $15 office visit. This was fantastic! Then life happened, the very fear that most new parents can imagine--my husband was laid off! Not unusual in this economy, but we were scared to death! We had to find him a job quickly and in the meantime, wanted to get the right insurance on our own to cover our baby girl. That was our job, so I started my search.

There are a ton of plans out there and you really have to do your homework. I consider myself a very thorough person, I asked a ton of questions, and got what I thought were all the right answers. We took on a relatively well known plan, it was a PPO with a higher office co-pay that I was told would cover all of our baby girl's needs.. So not the case! Let me warn any new parents out there--many insurance companies that you pay for out of your pocket have a waiting period for well baby visits and never cover immunizations. I was unfortunate enough to get a very dishonest insurance rep who hid these facts from me, and I'm currently fighting the charges for her visit. There are some great companies out there, but just be sure that if you are in a situation that you are responsible for your own insurance that you ask specifically about the coverage for both well baby visits and immunizations. Ask if there is a waiting period, if the shots themselves are covered, if there are any limits, anything that you can think of is worth asking. Hopefully mine was an isolated incident!

Thankfully my husband found a job relatively quickly and we have been so thankful! Insurance just kicked in and it's a PPO, I've had some good experiences with these in the past. The only thing to watch for with a PPO is that the insurance does not have a limit on what they will cover each member for. We're hoping that this is the right plan for us and that our baby gets all the coverage that she needs and deserves. It was hard to be a new parent worrying about something that is so taken for granted most of the time. All I can do from my experience is urge new parents to not only ask a lot of questions, but to read all the fine print and be sure that your insurance plan is what it claims to be. You want the very best for your baby as a new parent, and that's what you should have!