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Expats planning to have a baby while living abroad should secure health insurance with a newborn care benefit well before pregnancy. This benefit covers essential medical treatments and monitoring for babies immediately after birth, including thermal care, infection prevention, and assessments for potential health concerns. Having this coverage ensures your child receives quality care from day one without unexpected expenses.
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Not all expat health insurance plans automatically include newborn care, and many require waiting periods of 10 to 24 months before the benefit becomes active. The right policy can also combine newborn care with maternity, childbirth complication, and congenital condition coverage, giving families comprehensive protection throughout pregnancy and the newborn stage.
Are you hoping to become a parent in the near future? Are you an expat who’s living abroad and researching how to cover your maternity and newborn medical expenses? This article is meant for you!
In it, we will learn together what newborn care is, what newborn care insurance is, what it covers, how it is different from a stand-alone health insurance plan, what benefit limits many newborn care benefits have, when you should get newborn care coverage and more!
There is so much for you to learn in this global maternity insurance world, and Pacific Prime is here to help! We have over 20 years of experience in international insurance and have helped over one million expats cover their medical expenses.
As you read, please reach out to us with your questions, and we will give you unbiased advice. You are also encouraged to explore plans and quotes online at your own speed.
What Newborn Care Means for Expats
Newborn Care is the critical care administered to babies in the first days of their life. This includes immediate care at the time of birth and continual care for the full duration the child is considered a newborn. Expatriates should make sure their country of residence will provide newborn care.
Most international health insurance plans for expatriates will cover newborn care treatments, though the specific benefits may differ. It is common for newborn care and postpartum benefits for the mother to extend for 30 days past the date of birth.
Newborn Care insurance is the common term used to describe the insurance benefit that covers the cluster of treatments administered to newborns. These common treatments are defined below.
Key Treatments Included in Newborn Care
The World Health Organization has included the following types of care as essential newborn care treatments:
- Immediate care at birth (delayed cord clamping, thorough drying, assessment of breathing, skin-to-skin contact, early initiation of breastfeeding)
- Thermal care
- Resuscitation when needed
- Support for breast milk feeding
- Nurturing care
- Infection prevention
- Assessment of health problems
- Recognition and response to danger signs
- Timely and safe referral when needed
Most countries follow the WHO’s recommendations of providing essential newborn care, but it is the responsibility of the expatriate parents to determine before the birth of their child what their chosen hospital deems newborn care.
You’ll want to know ahead of time what services will be offered to your child so you select a hospital that offers the care you want, and so you can select an insurance plan that covers those services.
How Newborn Care Insurance Works with Expat Health Plans
Newborn care insurance is not a separate or stand-alone insurance plan. Typically, newborn care insurance is one benefit included in international health insurance plans. The newborn care benefit is often paired with other common maternity insurance benefits for the mother.
If you’re interested in getting insurance with a newborn care benefit, you’ll want to select a long-term expat health insurance policy that either comes with newborn and maternity benefits, or you’ll need to add them on as one of your providers’ optional coverage packages.
An international insurance broker can help you find several providers with these options.
Newborn Care Coverage Limits in International Plans
The Newborn Care benefit limit for international health insurance plans can be as little as USD $6,750 or as high as USD $156,000. How much coverage you want will affect the provider and plan you may select. Cigna’s newborn care benefits are unique because they last 90 days instead of only 30.
At the same time, VUMI’s newborn care benefit grants you the most flexibility to customize to your needs with its 5 plan options ranging from $50,000 to $150,000. If you only want the bare minimum, Allianz Care may be the best for you.
The following chart shows you several specific expat maternity plans with their newborn care benefit limit. All values are in USD.
Cost of Expat Health Insurance Plans with Newborn Care |
||
| Provider | Plan | Newborn Care Benefit |
| VUMI | Global Flex VIP Basic | $50,000 |
| VUMI | Global Flex VIP Standard | $75,000 |
| VUMI | Global Flex VIP Superior | $100,000 |
| VUMI | Global Flex VIP Ultra | $125,000 |
| VUMI | Global Flex VIP Total | $150,000 |
| Cigna | Silver | $25,000 up to 90 days |
| Cigna | Gold | $75,000 up to 90 days |
| Cigna | Platinum | $156,000 up to 90 days |
| Allianz Care | Bloom Plus | $13,500
(Newborn care is included in the “routine maternity” benefit) |
| Allianz Care | Bloom | $6,750
(Newborn care is included in the “routine maternity” benefit) |
To get quotes for any of these plans, fill out our Pacific Prime contact form, and we’ll get back to you shortly.
Best Time for Expats to Get Newborn Care Insurance
Expats who suspect they may try to become pregnant while living abroad should buy newborn care coverage as early as possible. All newborn and pregnancy insurance benefits have a waiting period that on average range from 10-24 months long, during which time these benefits will not take effect.
Each provider will have their own waiting period, although it is worth mentioning that different benefits may even have different waiting periods within the same plan from the same provider.
As an example, we can see for Cigna Global’s maternity and newborn care coverage in their Gold and Platinum plans, some benefits have different waiting periods. Here’s a chart to display the content easily for you.
Cigna’s Gold and Platinum Plans: Maternity Waiting Periods |
|
| Benefit | Waiting Period |
| Routine Maternity Care | 12 months |
| Complications from Maternity | 12 months |
| Newborn Care | 12 months |
| Prenatal and Postnatal Care | 12 months |
| Infertility Investigations and Treatments | 24 months |
To learn more about this plan and others like it, contact our insurance experts or compare its benefits and get a quote online.
Additional Newborn-Related Benefits to Consider
In addition to getting newborn care coverage, expats and foreign internationals who plan to become pregnant should get global health insurance with benefits for childbirth complications, congenital conditions, breastfeeding services, and pregnancy complications.
This section is intended to help individuals and families living outside of their country of residence consider other types of benefits they should look for when selecting their health plan.
Insurance Coverage for Childbirth Complications
Expatriates will want expat health insurance that covers childbirth complications. A childbirth complication is a complication that arises during childbirth, and it can affect the mother, the baby, or both. These complications can include:
- Failure for the labor to progress
- If the fetus is in an abnormal position during delivery
- Umbilical cord prolapse
- Umbilical cord compression
Coverage for Congenital Conditions in Newborns
Congenital conditions are defined as structural or functional anomalies that occur while the baby is in utero. These can also be known as birth defects, congenital anomalies, or congenital malformations. Some of these disorders can be treated with surgery or other interventions.
Expats will want to find a health insurance plan that includes coverage for congenital conditions because the testing and treatments can become quite expensive.
Some congenital conditions include:
- Cleft lip and palate
- Clubfoot
- Hernias
- Heart defects
- Neural tube defects
- Down syndrome
Health Insurance Benefits for Breastfeeding Support
If you are a soon-to-be mother who suspects you may want to breastfeed your child, it might be worth finding out if the insurance plan you’re considering will have coverage for breastfeeding services. These services can include counseling from a lactation consultant, a breast pump, and supplies.
Pregnancy Complication Coverage for Expats
A pregnancy complication is a health problem that arises during pregnancy, and it can affect the mother, the baby, or both. Expats will want to make sure their chosen expat health plan includes pregnancy complication coverage. Some common pregnancy complications include:
- Anemia
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Diabetes (Type 1, Type 2, and Gestational)
- Preeclampsia
- Heart Conditions (such as Heart Attack and Congenital Heart Defects)
- High Blood Pressure (Hypertension)
Why Brokers Are Valuable for Newborn Care Insurance
When expatriates use an insurance broker to get maternity insurance abroad, they gain an intermediary who negotiates with the provider on their behalf, who knows the international insurance market, who can compare plans with other top providers, and who works with them at no charge.
Are you considering going directly to the insurance provider? Here’s why a broker might better serve your needs:
- Brokers are not loyal to any particular insurer: Going directly to an insurer means they’ll recommend only their products and services, which may not necessarily be the best plan out there to meet your needs and budget.
On the contrary, brokers work with a range of different insurers and can give you a tailored plan comparison of all your options on the market.
- Brokers provide a number of value-added services: In addition to helping you find a suitable plan, brokers also tend to help you fill out insurance forms, liaise with insurers, and negotiate the best terms, as well as file claims for reimbursement and renew a plan.
This level of support and assistance is essential if you’re new to international insurance and don’t understand global insurance jargon.
- Brokers don’t charge extra: The cost to you is the same as going directly to the insurer! Many insurers rely on brokers to help them sell their insurance products so they don’t tend to offer any extra discounts or lower premiums if you go directly to them.
As such, it makes sense to go to a broker as you’ll pay the same amount AND benefit from the previously mentioned impartial advice and value-added services!
Pacific Prime is a leading global insurance broker that has helped over one million global travelers secure insurance. We have a robust global presence and solid partnerships with dynamic insurance providers.
We know insurance, and we know expats.
Learn more about how Pacific Prime can benefit you and help you secure the best insurance for your needs and budget.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does international health insurance cover childbirth?
Not all international health insurance plans cover childbirth expenses. Expats should take their time to read all the inclusions and exclusions of your health insurance plans before signing because you’ll want to make sure they have newborn care, prenatal and postnatal, and childbirth benefits.
Conclusion
We’ve now talked all about how newborn care is the treatments and monitoring done for a baby’s health immediately after they are born until they are no longer considered newborns.
We’ve also talked about what types of treatments are considered newborn care, what types of limit amounts various plans have, and when it is a good idea to buy newborn care insurance.
If you have found value in this article, please also read our posts Protecting Expats: Comprehensive Coverage for Pregnancy and Childbirth Complications and Congenital Conditions Coverage: Ensuring Peace of Mind for Expats and Their Newborns.
To get quotes or learn more about what plans are best in your country of residence, you can either contact our team or explore our online quote generator.
Serena earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the University of British Columbia, Canada. As such, she is an avid advocate of mental health and is fascinated by all things psychology (especially if it’s cognitive psychology!).
Her previous work experience includes teaching toddlers to read, writing for a travel/wellness online magazine, and then a business news blog. These combined experiences give her the skills and insights she needs to explain complex ideas in a succinct way. Being the daughter of an immigrant and a traveler herself, she is passionate about educating expats and digital nomads on travel and international health insurance.
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