Guide To Buying Maternity Insurance In Singapore

Over the past few years, maternity insurance has started becoming more popular in Singapore with more insurers offering it.

When we first wrote about maternity insurance in 2015, we only found one insurer offering this type of insurance. In this article, we will explore the types of coverage these maternity insurance policies offer, as well as the premiums that you can expect to pay.

What Is Maternity Insurance?

Maternity insurance is a single-premium insurance policy covering unexpected complications arising from pregnancy, which could affect either mother or child. Coverage from the policy is typically provided in the form of a one-time pay out if an insured event occurs. This is useful for parents to offset additional medical costs arising from these pregnancy complications.

For maternity insurance policies, expecting mothers can buy the policies from as early as 13 weeks of the pregnancy. If you already intend to buy maternity insurance, it’s advisable to get it as early as possible so that you enjoy a longer coverage for the same premiums.

What Maternity Insurance Covers?

It’s interesting to note that maternity insurance is one of the rare insurance policies in the market that covers two individuals via a single insurance policy. The two people, are of course, the mother and the child (or multiple children, for mothers who are carrying twins or more).

Coverage For Mother

Coverage for mothers would include a wide range of complications that could occur during pregnancy. Common complications include Abruptio Placentae (premature separation of the placenta from the uterus), Amniotic Fluid Embolism, Fatty Liver of Pregnancy, Postpartum Haemorrhage requiring Hysterectomy, Pre-Eclampsia or Eclampsia and also Still Birth.

Unless you are a doctor, most of these are likely medical terms that you will not be familiar with. However, these are pregnancy-related complications that do occur, which a maternity insurance policy would cover. For the exact extent of coverage, you should check out the details of the maternity insurance policies that you intend to purchase coverage from.

Besides pregnancy complications, other coverage for the mother could include hospital care benefits, where there would be cash payout for each day spent at the hospital for pregnancy-related issues as well as death and total permanent disability benefits.

Coverage For Child

Congenital illnesses are illnesses that are present at birth. Unfortunately, they do happen to a minority of babies for reasons that we will never know. These include Cleft lip and cleft palate, Club foot, Down syndrome and Spina bifida. Based on our observations, insurers in Singapore cover about 17 to 26 different types of congenital illnesses. Once again, you should check out the details of the various maternity insurance policies that you intend to purchase coverage from to know the different congenital illnesses it covers the child for.

For both pregnancy complications for the mother and congenital illnesses for the child, a one-time payout will be given when any of the diagnosed illnesses or complications occur.

Read Also: Different Types Of Baby Insurance To Buy For Your Newborn Child

What Are The Stand-Alone Maternity Insurance Policies In Singapore?

In Singapore currently, there are some insurers that offer stand-alone maternity insurance policies.

NTUC Income Maternity 360

Offered by NTUC Income, Maternity 360 provides coverage against 10 types of pregnancy complications for mothers and 23 types of congenital illnesses for children. It also provides hospital care benefits for both mother and child.

For a sum assured of $5,000, a 30-year-old pregnant mother will pay a single premium of $390.55.

For Mothers

Pregnancy Complication And Congenital Illnesses Benefit	100% of sum assured (i.e. $5,000)
Hospital Care Benefit	1% of the sum assured (i.e. $50) for each day, up to a maximum of 30% of the sum assured (i.e. $1,500).
Death Benefit	100% of sum assured (i.e. $5,000)

 For Newborns

Category of insured events	Cover limit
Congenital illnesses benefit (23 types)	100% of the sum assured
Hospital care benefit	1% of sum assured for each day of hospital stay, up to 30% of sum assured
Outpatient phototherapy benefit	1% of the sum assured for each day the phototherapy machine is rented, up to 10% of the sum assured
Death benefit	100% of the sum assured

Great Eastern GREAT Maternity Cover

The GREAT Maternity Cover offers two levels of coverage – Essential and Enhanced. Essential provides a sum assured of $5,000, while Enhanced provides a sum assured of $10,000.

Source

For example, a 35-year-old mother would pay $448 for the Essential plan that provides a sum assured of $5,000. This covers the mother for 19 types of pregnancy and childbirth complications and child coverage against 26 types of congenital illnesses.

For Mothers

Pregnancy And Childbirth Complications And Congenital Illnesses Benefit	100% of sum assured (i.e. $5,000 for Essential plan)
Hospital Care Benefit	Essential plan: $100 per day, up to maximum of 30 days; Enhanced plan: $200 per day, up to maximum of 30 days
Psychological Consultations Benefit	Essential plan: $100 per consultation, up to a maximum of 3 consultations; Enhanced plan: $100 per consultation, up to a maximum of 3 consultations

For Newborns

Category of insured events	Essential Plan	Enhanced Plan
Death due to Congenital illness	$5,000	$10,000
Congenital illness	$5,000	$10,000
Hospital care benefit	$100 per day, up to maximum of 30 days	$200 per day, up to maximum of 30 days

The policy will pay out once for pregnancy complications. It will also pay out once for congenital illnesses. In the unfortunate event that there are both pregnancy complications and congenital illnesses, the policy will pay out the sum assured twice.

PRUMum

Prudential offers a single premium 4-year maternity term protection plan for mothers and their newborns. There are 4 sum assured coverage options that you can choose from. This covers up to 13 pregnancy complications, 25 congenital illnesses, mental wellness care, gestational diabetes mellitus and hospital care benefits.

It also covers assisted pregnancies such as In Vitro Fertilisation.

You can take a look at the summary of benefits here.

For Mothers

Pregnancy Complications And Congenital Illnesses Benefit	Get protected for up to 13 pregnancy complications; Up to 25 Congenital illnesses
Hospital Care Benefit	Receive 2% sum assured a day, for up to 50 days
Psychological Consultations And Postpartum Depression Diagnosis	Payout for Psychological Consultations is up to $200; Up to 5% sum assured with Postpartum Depression Diagnosis

For Newborns

Hospital care benefit

Receive 1% sum assured a day, for up to 50 days

Insurance-Linked Maternity Plans

Besides the stand-alone maternity insurance plans, you can also consider maternity insurance plans that are bundled along with a whole life insurance plan or an investment-linked policy (ILP). These insurance-linked maternity plans include the AIA MUM2BABY and Prudential PRUFirst Promise.

Since these maternity plans typically require you to purchase a separate whole life insurance plan or an investment-linked policy, you need to not only consider the maternity insurance protection that you want, but also the life insurance or ILP coverage that you are getting. This is especially since both of these insurance policies are a long-term commitment and you need to ensure that you are comfortable with the premiums you will be paying.

Are there any other stand-alone maternity insurance plans in Singapore that we missed out on? Let us know what they are at editorial@dollarsandsense.sg

Read Also: Should You Get A Whole Life Insurance Policy? We Explain In Details How It Works

This article was first published on 16 February 2021 and has been updated with the latest information.

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