Is it illegal to for an insurance company to call a baby still in the womb a pre-existing condition?

Question

Is it illegal to for an insurance company to call a baby still in the womb a pre-existing condition?

Answer 1

NO.. not if you get insurance after the fact of being pregnant.  That means the baby was pre-existing before you purchased the insurance.  

Answer 2

No. A lot of insurance companies consider pregnancy a pre-existing condition if you're already pregnant when you inquire about that insurance.

ETA: Mclovin, then tell me why my brother's insurance wouldn't cover my SIL because her pregnancy was consider pre-existing. They are STILL getting bills from the hospital and their baby is 3 months old.

Answer 3

http://www.insure.com/articles/healthins...

This website gives some great information about the law that insurance companies cannot consider pregnancy a pre-existing condition and the 'loopholes' that insurance companies have found.

Answer 4

No. Pregnancy is a medical condition. It requires medical attention/intervention just like many other medical conditions. Pregnancy requires almost a year of medical attention, health insurance usually pays a huge amount of the cost.

Answer 5

No. But if you have insurance through your work, they must legally cover the pregnancy anyway. If you have individual insurance, they can deny it unless you get a policy what speciafially covers pregnancy

Answer 6

No.Most insurance companies will drop you and consider baby a pre-existing condition if you are already pregnant when applying.My insurance through my work dropped me.I wasn't pregnant when I applied but found out that I was right before insurance kicked in

Answer 7

Contrary to all of the other answers here, pregnancy is NOT a pre-existing condition. According to HIPAA:

"Pregnancy cannot be denied as a preexisting condition by an employer's insurer. In addition, preexisting conditions cannot be applied to newborns, adopted children under age 18 or a child under age 18 placed for adoption as long as the child become covered under the health plan within 30 days of birth, adoption or placement for adoption, and provided the child does not incur a subsequent 63-day or longer break in coverage."

Not only do I work at an insurance agency, but I had a situation last year were my wife was five months pregnant when we decided to get married, I added her on to my insurance at that point and they covered all 9 months.

Do not listen to anyone else who will tell you otherwise.

**EDIT**

I work with group health, so I did forget to mention on an individual policy they do not have to accept you if you are pregenant, and it can actually be considered a pre-existing condition for an individual policy.

Try to get coverage through your work if at all possible.

Answer 8

No!  If someone is already pregnant, why would an insurance company pay for the very expensive delivery and after care?

Insurance is something you pay very little money for to make sure that you are covered in case of a health problem.  Insurance is not socialized medicine, in which everyone would contribute money to pay for the entire group's health care regardless of pre-existing conditions.

Answer 9

No, if you were already pregnant when you applied for the insurance. As crude as this sounds, if you were pregnant, the pregnancy was preexisting.

If you get pregnant after the insurance kicks in, they have to cover it.

Answer 10

No, I know it sounds stupid.

Answer 11

If you were pregnant before the insurance was to kick in, yes, the pregnancy is considered a pre-existing condition. It is not illegal for them to say that. I had a friend that went through all that with their pregnancy.

Answer 12

I currently work for an insurance company that sells disability insurance. Most companies when it comes down to considering pregnancy treat it as any other medical condition. Therefore, if they give birth within 10 months of the effective date it won't be covered, and is considered a pre-existing condition. However, if it is after the 10 month period that it won't be. There are stipulations though to say if there are complications and the due date was considered after the 10 months, then the insurance company would pay. Some companies though can take a look back 2 or 3 years and consider any medical condition (including pregnancy) as a pre-exisiting condition, although most companies have rules against that now.