Health insurance for baby

My company currently pays for my sovereign surgical care health insurance. I've had the insurance for three years and not made a claim.

Going on maternity leave I have the option to keep the insurance by paying for it myself - it would cost $70 per month for myself and for baby.

$70 a month is quite a lot on our single income. I'm not so worried about dropping the insurance for myself but how many of you feel that medical insurance (surgical care only) is important for bub?

Edited by JessDub

We have full med insurance for all of us and I honestly would not be without it! We have made so many claims, lots for Kaia and Quinn recently had surgery that was fully covered. It has made life so much easier! It meant that we could make an appt to see the specialist and book ourselves in for surgery within eight days! Much better than waiting for public surgery!
$70 is a lot when you are't working (I dont' know how much we pay, we get it thru DH's work) but worth it if you need to claim.

PS I had emergency surgery last year publicly and it was a SHAMBLES!! Won't go into details but it was so very horrid and I was so grateful that if anyone in my family needs surgery we will not have to go thru that.

I put Bella on our surgical only plan with Southern Cross as soon as she was born (that way you avoid any "pre-existing" conditions) and she has had her grommets done and is having her adenoids done next month, totalling about $5000 worth of surgery.

It sounds like you pay a lot - mine is $50 a month and comes out of my pay. When I go on maternity leave, I paid directly out of my bank account. If you ever pause/stop paying, they deem it a "break" in your contract and you have to wait another 3 years (or whatever it is for your company) for pre-existing conditions to be covered again, so you have to be really careful with that and keep them well informed.

To cover a baby is usually only another $5 a month, so I think it is defnitely worth it.

Insurance is one of those things you get for peace of mind. Can you afford not to have it?

We kept all our insurances going since going down to one income. I wouldn't even contemplate cancelling them as we need them if something went wrong.

I would recommend a review with the company and again be careful about pre-existings - you don't want to lose cover on them.   

We cut Sky until I go back to work to help pay for things. Perhaps you could make cuts somewhere else??

We pay $65 for Jack and I (DH is covered through the army) so is quite a lot but covers surgical, optical and dental.

You need to put a child on before they are 1 month old in most policies otherwise ear conditions etc are counted as 'pre-existing' and are not covered. Well worth it IMHO as I alone have racked up close to 10k in the last 2-3 years.