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Top 7 Maternity Insurance Coverage

Maternity Insurance offer protection coverage for expecting mothers & their baby as early as the 13th week of gestation. All you need to do is to pay for a Single Premium and it covers up to 3 years. The protection coverage is based on a specific list of pregnancy complications and congenital illnesses.

A lump sum payout will be given to the mother & baby should either be diagnosed with a listed complication, and if hospitalization is required due to the complication, mother and baby will receive a hospital care benefit. The advantage of this Maternity Insurance is that the mother has the option to buy or transfer a particular insurance plan for or to her newborn with no underwriting or simplified health declaration (different rules and terms apply for each company)

Maternity Insurance

There are currently 7 main insurance companies in Singapore that offer Maternity Insurance Plan:

  1. Singlife – Maternity Care (Previously known as Aviva MyMaternityPlan)
  2. AIA – MUM2BABY CHOICES
  3. AXA – Mum’s Advantage
  4. Great Eastern – Great Maternity Care
  5. Manulife – ReadyMummy
  6. NTUC Income – Maternity 360
  7. Prudential – PRUMum & PRUFirst Promise

And Maternity Insurance cover the following aspects:

  1. Pregnancy Complication
  2. Congenital Illnesses
  3. Hospital Care Benefit
  4. Coverage Amount/Sum Assured
  5. Death Benefit
  6. Years of Coverage
  7. Pregnancy Eligibility Week
  8. Bundled or Standalone
  9. Guaranteed Issuance Offer
  10. Outpatient Phototherapy
  11. Additional Benefit
  12. Others( Number of fetus covered, IVF / IUI / ICI & etc)
  13. Premium

1) Pregnancy Complication

Each insurance company covers a different list of pregnancy complications. GE covered 19 pregnancy and childbirth complications. Followed by AIA & Manulife offer the 2nd most coverage, covering 14 types of complications (*both companies cover a different list of complications*). The insurance company will pay 100% of the total cost from the moment the mother and/or baby is diagnosed with any listed pregnancy complication.

2) Congenital Illnesses

If baby is diagnosed with a listed congenital illness, the insurance company will pay 100% sum assured. GE covered the most congenital illness which is 26. Followed by AIA & Prudential offer the 2nd highest number of coverages at 25 different illnesses, followed by Manulife at 24. Lowest coverage is AXA.

3) Hospital Care Benefit

Hospital care applies to both mother and baby. The mother will be entitled for daily hospital care benefit with x% of Sum Assured to a maximum number of days for pregnancy complication/s listed. As for the baby, different companies offer a different list of complications. For example, all of them offer incubation of newborn for more than three consecutive days immediately following birth. The most useful coverage is the inpatient hospitalization due to Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease, which is a common illness for children once they start infant care or school. If this should happen, the benefits will be similar to the above mentioned for the mother, where the child will be entitled for daily hospital care benefit with x% of Sum Assured to max number of days.

Maternity Insurance Singapore

4) Coverage Amount

In the market, the lowest coverage is $5,000 while the highest is up to $25,000. Some companies offer sum assured at any amount from $5,000 to $25,000, while others offer $5,000, $10,000 or $25,000 ONLY. The Premium will directly impact on the sum assured.

5) Death Benefit

In the event of death to the mother or baby, most insurance companies will pay the lump sum of the sum assured.

6) Years of Coverage

In the market, almost all insurers cover for 3 years, with the exception of Prudential PRUMUM plan, which covers for 4 years. Cover up to 3 years is good enough because after baby born, you will purchase health insurance for you baby. The best part of maternity insurance is that it is able to cover your baby before health insurance you purchased incepted. Which could take 14 days to month plus. That is the period where baby is the most vulnerable where totally no coverage at all if you do not get maternity insurance coverage.

7) Pregnancy Eligibility Week

All insurance companies allow you to be protected as early 13th weeks of pregnancy. Most of them allow you to purchase the plan as late as 36th weeks, except for NTUC Income (35th week) and Great Eastern (40th week). The earlier you get yourself protected, the safer you are as complications often develop over time. The Premium at 13th week or at 35th week is the same. All are subject to underwriting. You should get this as early as possible because along the way, you will do a lot of test and scan. If the test has unfavorable result to you, then you will have problem to get this maternity coverage. The simplest example is Glucose Tolerance Test at 24th to 28th week.

8) Bundled or Standalone

There are 2 types of plans in the market. The first type is called the Bundled Plan. When maternity insurance was first launched, insurance companies bundled it with a plan (either Whole Life or Investment Linked Policy). The mother had to purchase either the Whole Life or Investment Linked Policy of herself then transfer it to her baby when the baby is born. Maternity insurance could only be purchased if either policy was bought. After some time, other insurance companies started to change this in order to suit each customer’s needs. As such, customers are now able to purchase a Maternity Insurance as a standalone.

Bundled:

  1. i) AIA (Purchase Investment Linked Policy or Whole Life for mummy then transfer to baby)
  2. ii) Singlife (Purchase any new plan and a maternity plan can be bought)
  3. iii) AXA (Purchase Investment Linked Policy for mummy then transfer to baby)
  4. iv) PrudentialPRUFIRST PROMISE (Purchase Whole Life for mummy then transfer to baby)

Standalone:

  1. i) Manulife
  2. ii) NTUC Income
  3. iii) Great Eastern (GE)
  4. iv) Prudential PRUMUM

9) Guaranteed Issuance Offer

Insurance companies allow mummies to buy or transfer the insurance plan (Whole Life or Investment Linked Policy) to babies n-th day from baby’s date of birth with simplified health declaration or some no medical questions asked. This varies across all insurance companies and their plan.

10) Outpatient Phototherapy

Jaundice is a common medical condition in newborns. However, not all jaundice cases require hospitalization and Singlife, Manulife & Income offer this unique feature in their plan.

11) Additional Benefits

Different companies offer different types of benefits. For example, Singlife provides Stem Cell Treatment & Development Delay, Great Eastern gives out a premium voucher ($108) to offset new eligible plans and Manulife & Prudential cover Mental Wellness.

11) Additional Benefits

Different companies offer different types of benefits. For example, Singlife provides Stem Cell Treatment & Development Delay, Great Eastern gives out a premium voucher ($108) to offset new eligible plans and Manulife & Prudential cover Mental Wellness.

12) Others (Number of fetus covered, IVF / IUI / ICI & etc)

There are a lot of other coverage that are not standardized in the market such as coverage for the number of fetuses and IVF/IUI/ICI with or without loading. Such coverage applies to both locals and expats.

13) Premium

The younger you are, the cheaper the premium. Premium increases as your age increases due to higher the risk in pregnancy with increased age. How far along you are in your pregnancy, be it the 12th or 35th week, does not affect your Premium. Also, Standalone plans are slightly more expensive than bundled ones.

Best Maternity Insurance Singapore

Other than that, some might ask if our existing hospitalization plan cover pregnancy complications & child congenital illness. Again, different companies cover different conditions so you will need to check in detail your existing hospitalization plan with your existing insurance agent or financial planner. Apart from that, you need to take note that there is a waiting period before your hospitalization covers this. Some might change hospitalization insurance plans from company A to B.

After baby born, you can purchase health insurance. However, a lot of paperwork need to be done, waiting time, approval and etc. As for foreigner baby, it takes even more longer time as you need to get passport, long term visit pass or dependent pass. This is the most vulnerable period for Singaporean and foreigner baby.

Overall, there is no best Maternity Insurance plan. The best maternity coverage is based on an individual’s needs and budget, and with regards to this, each insurance company excel in specific areas. You should get as early as 13th week, before major scan and test. A lot of mummies failed to this coverage because failed the Glucose Tolerance Test at 24th.