Complementary Medicine, Dental &
Maternity
If you are able to afford the premiums, outpatient coverage added
to in-patient/daycare coverage makes sense. In-patient care gives
catastrophic coverage or hospital cost coverage, but gives no cost
coverage if you are a member of the "walking wounded".
A medium range comprehensive plan may well limit the amount you may
claim on the outpatient costs, but a deluxe or fully comprehensive
will give full coverage for this benefit.
Many plans do offer benefit for accidental damage to teeth, but not
routine elective dental healthcare. Routine dental treatment is
mostly quoted as an optional extra, as is any option to take out
routine maternity treatment.
So, if you break a tooth you are covered but if you visit the
dentist for a crown, beware you may have to pay.
Routine maternity care coverage can be a valuable part of overseas
family planning, yet many women and families overseas unfortunately
only contact their broker or insurer when already pregnant.
Few insurers will allow routine maternity costs reimbursed when a
woman is pregnant before actually taking out the plan. Almost all
insurers will consider an existing pregnancy as a pre-existing
condition, but will cover emergency care in the pregnancy.
If a couple have held medical insurance for one year, the insurer
may offer an option with co-insurance for routine maternity costs
to a capped limit. Talk this over with a specialist advisor for a
full picture before taking on a healthplan.
More insurers are now taking a more enlightened approach to the
subject of complementary care and costs of such as chiropractors,
osteopaths, homeopaths, acupuncturists and the like. These benefits
are usually severely "budget capped" by the insurers, however, they
are worthy of consideration.