3 Responses to “Would Getting A 2nd Medical Insurance Plan For My Wife Make Our Pregnancy Any Cheaper?”

1. 

   Anonymous said on Monday, November 9, 2009, 14:07

   First, I agree, it is unlikely that the second plan will pickup on the pregnancy since it is a preexisting condition.
   Second, It depends.
   Some plans will pick the co-pays up. If it does and she has a lot of medical expenses that come up over the years, it could save you if having both plans doesn’t cost you too much.
   However, not all plans will work that way. Since I can get my health insurance thru’ my employer very inexpensively and since my hubby used to get free coverage on the whole family free, I had coverage under both plans. But, only my insurance paid. The plan his company had would not pick up anything left over by my insurance. It was still good that I had my own coverage since mine was far better coverage. Then his company went to another insurer. They paid some, but not much, of my left over expenses. Then his employer could no longer afford to give free medical coverage for the high level employees because of the economy. It still paid to have me covered under both plans since the plan they were using did pick up most of my left over expenses. I have a lot of medical expenses so we save more by having two plans on me than if we had only one on me.
   As it works out now, his employer and my employer use the same insurance carrier, but different plans. Since my plan is my primary plan, his plan picks up most of my left over costs. However, if his plan were my primary plan, my plan as my secondary plan would pick up none of my left over expenses. This is because of the rules of the plans that we each have. It is confusing since they are the same company, but it is the way it works.
   Getting the second plan is unlikely to help now (unless the baby has problems at birth and the second plan picks up for the baby’s extra expenses). If you want to consider carrying two plans for your wife, you need to find out if they will work together or not. You could be wasting a lot of money if they don’t.
2. 

   Zarnev said on Monday, November 9, 2009, 19:43

   First off, pregnancy cannot be considered as a pre-existing condition with group policies. Here is the government website with more information: http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq_consume…
   The secondary insurance may pick up some of the cost but it will depend upon the plans, as already mentioned in an above post. The only time it would be cost effective would be if the plan premium is 100% paid for by the employer.
3. 

   zeuz said on Tuesday, November 10, 2009, 1:23

   Yes and no. A second plan will essentially pick up all of the co-payments that the first plan does not pay. However, if your wife is already pregnant and if there is a pre-existing conditions clause on the second plan, then the second plan will not pay anything for the pregnancy.