HELP - May cancel WDW trip unless I can find decent insurance that covers pregnancy

[Hemlock]

Can anyone recommend a travel health insurance company that provides adequate coverage during pregnancy. Based on a previous thread that I posted a few days ago, I decided to check into the coverage provided by our usual travel health insurance company.

They will provide coverage until 31 weeks, which in not a problem for me because I will only be 26 weeks at the time of our vacation. However, they will only cover delivery, if it occurs as a result of an accident. The example that the agent gave me was that if I was in a car accident which caused premature delivery, my care would be covered. However, if I went into labor for any reason other than an "accident", my care would not be covered. Furthermore, the baby's care would not be covered under any circumstance (even the above mentioned accident). The agent said that they do not cover babies until they are 31 days old.

We will cancel our vacation, if we cannot find adequate health insurance. Surely better coverage must exist.

Please HELP!!!

 

[Alderbrook]

I'm pretty sure this is standard. When I was pregnant, I couldn't find insurance that would cover the baby at all if something happened (I didn't look into it that far though as it was just a shopping trip). Needless to say, we stayed in Canada. People do travel pregnant, I think they must go without insurance though for it. My cousin did & just chanced it, I won't though.

 

[Susan2771]

Nope, nothing out there. I have booked pregnant clients on a number of trips all over and have contacted every single travel insurance company out there and no one will cover a woman expecting once you hit the 31 weeks and will not cover either the period after 9 weeks from delivery any complications that had to do with the birth. That is a very high risk time.

On a side note, have a healthy and happy pregnancy!

 

[Sue M]

Nothing to add except good luck hope you find something.

 

[tone.def]

I'm so sorry, but you're not going to find better than that - I searched as I was going to Honduras at 6 months pregnant. You'll be in Florida and in a way better place if something were to go wrong.

I wouldn't cancel my vacation.

 

[Alderbrook]

You could do what we're doing. I had my daughter in June this year so she's almost 5 months now. Even if I could find insurance I didn't really want to pay all that money to go pregnant & not be able to go on rides with my 5 year old son so we skipped last year & we're going now in September 2012. My daughter will be 15 months old & FREE!! Ya, kind of sucks to have to change diapers & deal with a baby there, but we will all have insurance & I'm sure we'll still manage to have fun, we'll just be going at a slower pace.

One of the ladies on my baseball team is a nurse & one night we were talking about our health care system in Ontario & she was telling me a friend of hers went to California for a week & decided against getting insurance, she ended up in a terrible car accident & in the hospital in California for over a month some of which was in an induced coma. The bill she ended up with was over a million dollars, which there's no way she can pay. I wouldn't risk going pregnant with no insurance. A normal ******l delivery is like $20,000 in the US.

 

[Hemlock]

We are definitely not going to risk it if we can't find insurance. I am a little shocked that better coverage doesn't seem to exist. I expected to pay more for coverage, but never expected that coverage wouldn't even exist!

 

[Alderbrook]

I agree, a baby shouldn't be classified as a pre-existing condition, but according to insurance companies, it is. I can understand them not wanting to insure a woman 9 weeks before you're due, but if you go into labour earlier than that, I would consider that an emergency!

 

[souris]

I wish I had a better answer for you... We ended up changing our travel dates so we went when I was 15 weeks. I had a great time! It was our last trip just the two of us... so it was a Babymoon! We wanted to go when I would have been 30 weeks, but could not find coverage. It was too scary a thought to go risking an early labor. Good Luck!

 

[iluvflorida]

You could do what we're doing. I had my daughter in June this year so she's almost 5 months now. Even if I could find insurance I didn't really want to pay all that money to go pregnant & not be able to go on rides with my 5 year old son so we skipped last year & we're going now in September 2012. My daughter will be 15 months old & FREE!! Ya, kind of sucks to have to change diapers & deal with a baby there, but we will all have insurance & I'm sure we'll still manage to have fun, we'll just be going at a slower pace.

One of the ladies on my baseball team is a nurse & one night we were talking about our health care system in Ontario & she was telling me a friend of hers went to California for a week & decided against getting insurance, she ended up in a terrible car accident & in the hospital in California for over a month some of which was in an induced coma. The bill she ended up with was over a million dollars, which there's no way she can pay. I wouldn't risk going pregnant with no insurance. A normal ******l delivery is like $20,000 in the US.

Why did her auto insurance not cover??

 

[Alderbrook]

I don't think she was driving, she was a passenger, maybe she doesn't have auto insurance? I don't think my auto insurance would cover me in the US if I was a passenger, but I've never actually looked into coverage that way as we always buy medical.

 

[monkey30]

We are definitely not going to risk it if we can't find insurance. I am a little shocked that better coverage doesn't seem to exist. I expected to pay more for coverage, but never expected that coverage wouldn't even exist!

I found out I was pregnant with DS1 after we booked our honeymoon we got all the money back with a letter from our doctor saying not to travel. I would look at that as well, asI would hate for someone to lose money and cancel the trip!

 

[Hemlock]

Just wanted to update anyone who might be following this thread that I found insurance through Blue Cross. They seem to offer very good coverage for pregnancy. It includes medical costs for premature delivery and any costs asociated with a premature baby.

 

[Hemlock]

I found out I was pregnant with DS1 after we booked our honeymoon we got all the money back with a letter from our doctor saying not to travel. I would look at that as well, asI would hate for someone to lose money and cancel the trip!

Thanks. This is something that I will definitely be looking into as well. I expect to be able to travel in March, but you just never know...

 

[Alderbrook]

Awesome news!!! Have fun on your trip & congrats on your pregnancy!

 

[monkey30]

Just wanted to update anyone who might be following this thread that I found insurance through Blue Cross. They seem to offer very good coverage for pregnancy. It includes medical costs for premature delivery and any costs asociated with a premature baby.

Thats great to hear. I hope you can still do your trip!

As for our doctor, all I had to say was I did not feel safe traveling when I was pregnant and she signed the papers, she said there was no reason I couldn't but If I was not into it there was no reason I should

 

[KiKi Mouse]

Interesting.

Both DH and myself have insurance through our employers. However, we never thought to look into what would be covered if i had pregnancy issues on our trips.
We've traveled to Disney and to South East Asia while I was pregnant and always assumed our insurance would cover any problems.

Good thread and advice for people who are pregnant and travelling.

 

[carolynl]

just bumping this up. Has anyone else used blue cross for this? how fast were they able to process the insurance?