Understanding health insurance coverage is critical in every surrogacy arrangement. As a first step, both the intended parents and gestational carrier need to understand what health insurance coverage the carrier has or doesn’t have to make the right decisions about whether and what kind of additional coverage may be necessary. If you determine that additional or different coverage is needed, there are some good options out there.
📍Can you obtain an Affordable Care Act policy? This will depend on whether the gestational carrier can take advantage of an open enrollment period due to a qualifying event such as a job loss, relocation to a new area or change in family status/size. You can expect this option to cost at least $10,000.
📍 Is a short term maternity policy best? This will depend on whether you are trying to fill the gap as you wait on new coverage to begin (resulting from a job change) or if gestational carrier cannot take advantage of an open enrollment period. This option is going to usually cost somewhere between $2000 and $5000 and may require intended parents to cover individual maternity expenses in addition to the premium.
📍 Is a surrogacy-specific policy the best option? This will depend on whether you have concerns that the existing health insurance coverage will cover the surrogacy and you want a back up plan or you want the new policy to be the primary coverage because the existing health insurance explicitly does not cover a surrogacy pregnancy. This is the most expensive option and the cost will depend on whether the gestational carrier is carrying a singleton or multiples. The cost typically starts around $20,000 and increases from there.
Do you have more questions about health insurance coverage and surrogacy? Let’s talk!
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