What insurance companies offer disability insurance with maternity pay?

Answer 1

Most individual (non-group/non-employer sponsored) disability policies do not cover routine maternity claims, but there are still companies out there who offer it. What is offered can depend by state. So the best way to find out your options is to contact a local insurance broker who works with many different carriers, who can provide you with options and advice. Brokers can be found by going to the National Association of Health Underwriters (www.NAHU.org), the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (www.iiaba.org), or similar non-profit organizations.

If you are an employer, you'll be happy to know that any group disability policy written since 1978 and with a group size of at least 15 employees requires that pregnancies be treated the same way as an illness is treated under the policy. Many State laws lower the group size for this requirement. Even so, most group disability insurance carriers either automatically extend this coverage to groups less than 15 employees, or make it available by choice of the employer at the time the policy is written, so even smaller groups may also benefit include maternity disability coverage.

Even if your policy does include disability for pregnancies, you must pay close attention to the waiting period and the period of benefits. The waiting period is the time frame in which a person must be disabled and no benefits are payable. This could be days, weeks or even months. For example, if the policy has a 7 day waiting period then for the 1st 7 days of disability, no benefits would be payable until the 8th day on. There is a standard recovery time for not only delivery but any disabling condition & most insurance companies will consider benefits until the 6 week postpartum date for a normal delivery and 8 weeks postpartum for a c-section. Make sure the that the period of benefits (the maximum time period a person could receive benefits) would meet exceed the time frame you would need disability income.