Medical Insurance for babies

[Patricia]

Hello there,

I am currently researching medical insurance options for my baby due at the end of April. I have only recently discovered that I should have applied for this three months before the due date. As the websites and info are mainly in Finnish I was wondereing if anyone could advise on a company where I can still avail of this. Also I would be interested to hear people's feedback on this as I have heard that there is a debate both for/against getting it as the medical care in Finland is already so good. This will be our first baby so it is fair to say that I am quite clueless and would appreciate any advice!

Regards.

[EP]

I have only recently discovered that I should have applied for this three months before the due date.

Sorry, I don´t get it. Why would you take an insurance for a baby that is not even born yet?

I have heard that there is a debate both for/against getting it as the medical care in Finland is already so good.

I have not heard of such debate. Babies are well covered even without an insurance. And so are children. BUT I suggest that you get an insurance AFTER the baby is born. Nothing expensive, just so that in case the baby gets sick you can always take it to a private clinic with specialists and get someone to see the baby at once, and you don´t have to wait 2-3 hours at a public health center. Babies and children always go to the head of the queue, but you might still have to wait, and waiting is not fun with a sick child.

I have had two children, and both had insurances. For the other one it was absolute waste of money, but for the other one it was a godsend: Before the kid was five he had had three ear operations, tonsils removed, hernia operation, stiches here and there, two dozen ear infections, you name it, he got it.

[Sara]

Hello!

We didnt bother with J as when we looked into them, the insurance didnt cover a lot of things. We worked it out that if we did need to see a private doctor for anything it was cheaper just to pay it rather than waste the money on the insurance each month.

I know youre in a different area to us, but we have a very good local health centre with also counted towards not having the baby insurance. Also if our local health centre cant see you and need the same day appointment for a baby they just send you up to the hospital. Fine for us as its only about 20-30 minutes away, and we would go straight there for anything urgent anyway.

[Sara]

EP there is a special 'baby insurance' now that you take out before the baby is born. Its been ages since we looked at it so I dont remember the details for it.

[antstar]

I have only recently discovered that I should have applied for this three months before the due date.

Sorry, I don´t get it. Why would you take an insurance for a baby that is not even born yet?


Most insurance companies want you to go with them before the baby is due, so you become their customer before the child is born, there is a Five month bracket (3 before , 2 after) it would be very expensive for cover is you baby has a medical condition.

I have heard that there is a debate both for/against getting it as the medical care in Finland is already so good.

I have not heard of such debate. Babies are well covered even without an insurance. And so are children. BUT I suggest that you get an insurance AFTER the baby is born. Nothing expensive, just so that in case the baby gets sick you can always take it to a private clinic with specialists and get someone to see the baby at once, and you don´t have to wait 2-3 hours at a public health center. Babies and children always go to the head of the queue, but you might still have to wait, and waiting is not fun with a sick child.

I have had two children, and both had insurances. For the other one it was absolute waste of money, but for the other one it was a godsend: Before the kid was five he had had three ear operations, tonsils removed, hernia operation, stiches here and there, two dozen ear infections, you name it, he got it.

We have not taken any cover as yet (our son is four months) but we are waiting for a quote from Tapiola. You always get help no matter, but sometimes with a child you may still have to queue, and then if you go to private will cost much more. Its always good to shop around but our quote is to be linked with our car/house/pet insurance so we should get a discount. the main issue is that you will always get help quicker and ie test results quicker, and always have speacialist at hand, Just need to weigh up the worth.
Hope this helps and if you like i will let you know our quote.

[EP]

EP there is a special 'baby insurance' now that you take out before the baby is born.

Oh, OK. Well, for THAT I don´t see any kind of need.

[Hank W.]

Well, lets say the baby has some complications at birth. The parents know it after the baby is born, but if you go ask for insurance then its too late....

[EP]

Complications at (and after) birth are taken care of without an insurance.

[Patricia]

Hi,
Thank-you VERY much for your replies...as I said from clueless soon to be first time Mum...they are of great help!!

[Mook]

Complications at (and after) birth are taken care of without an insurance.

Well, unfortunately medicine isn't free in Finland.

THe insurance is around 100 Euros/year, if taken before the baby is born.

As I understand the main complaint in baby's is earache, which can take lots of visits. As Sara says, you can always go to private healthcare and just pay for it or there's always the public healthcare - downtown it doesn't seem so busy.


We've got insurance for the one we have and the one that's due.

[Keke]

You're right, Patricia, the insurance companies that sell child insurance starting pre-birth stipulate that you have to take the insurance out 3 months before the due date. The insurance then covers your baby from the day it's born. It's not quite so simple, though, as some of these companies won't sell you that type of insurance unless you have other insurance (e.g. home, car) with them.

Other companies only offer post-birth insurance, sold after the birth. There's also at least one company, If, that splits its child insurance into two products: pre-birth insurance, covering complications during the birth and post-birth insurance, starting from when the child is two months. Yeah, it gets complicated!

We've got child insurance with If and you can only take it out after the baby is 2 months old. When you take the insurance out, you have to declare any illnesses/disabilities that the baby's been treated for during the first two months of it's life and the policy coverage then excludes these illnesses should they happen again. I'm sure it's the same with other insurance companies if you take the insurance out after the birth. There will be a waiting period so they can 'wait and see' and exclude things from the coverage that the baby has suffered from during the first two months.

We've been pleased with the If insurance - you can simply fill out details of doctors visits and prescriptions on their website and the money is in your account within a few days.

So your question, do you NEED medical insurance for a child in Finland? Well, like any other service, you're paying for the convenience of the service. When you use private doctors, you get very quick appointment times, can go to whichever doctor you choose, see specialists quicker than you'd be able to through the health service, get pleasant service at the reception etc etc.

If your child suffers from fairly regular childhood illnesses and the occasional visit to the doctor, though, you'll be paying more for the insurance than you claim back. On the other hand, if you have a child who is frequently ill and/or has a serious medical condition, what you claim back would probably be far more than you pay for the insurance.

I read recently that about half of families in Finland take out medical insurance for children. For us,the main reason we have insurance is because my wife and are are both working and simply appreciate the flexibility with appointment times and locations of private doctors. It's not because we feel the Finnish helthcare system is poor. However, there are probably other families that don't need as much flexibility, so the local terveyskeskus is fine.

So the bottom line, I think, are you prepared to pay for convenience?

[richard berman]

We got insurance for both our kids I think it start 7 days after they where born, yeas it costs around 100€ a year per a child (But goes down to about 50€ a year when they turn two) the insurance was the best thing we did as both girls had problems with the ears and had to have ops , it costs about 50 to 60€ a visit to a doc and the ops are about 500€ or was it more and then all the meds, we got all our money back and we did not have to pay for the ops the doctors just went stright to the insurance office to get the money. We looked a little while back and if we had payed out of our own pocket it would have cost over 3,000€ so we win. A few friends have just gone to a public hospital and they have waiting lists for ear ops , we saw a doctor on a Monday and the kids where having the op on a wednesday so its a good service. If you get the insurance before the baby is born , if I remember it costs alot.

[Hank W.]

EP, its not Kekkoslovakia any more I didn't have an insurance either and look where I am now!

[RA]

We took out medical insurance for our daughter before she was born, mainly because most insurance companies price the insurance taken out after birth more expensively than the one taken out before. At least that was the case in 2005. We took it out 4 months before I was due. As someone else mentioned, most insurance companies only give you medical insurance, if you have other insurance policies with them. We insure with Fennia, (home insurance, my husband's business, car, diving, travel, etc) and we do get quite a big discount on our insurance. I just checked that our daughter's insurance is about 190 a year, but this is before the discounts. We feel that it's paid out because she's fallen ill quite a lot, plus she had a lot of ear infections and had to get ear plugs put in as well. Most often if it's in the night or on the weekend, we've taken her to a private doc: no waiting and things move pretty fast and the insurance refunds all the costs incurred (doctor's fees plus medication). I don't want to wait for hours in the ensiapu. We have 50 euro payment that we have to meet if it's the first time she's diagnosed with something. Basically after the first ear infection she had, we had to cover the first 50 euro and after that we've never had to pay a cent, same with asthma. Sure we'd still get treatment on the public side and we have also gone to see the doctor there, but I must say that each time it has been something with her ears, wierd things just seem to happen plus they always prescribed her dose of antibiotics. These days, if we see the doc on the public end and they say the word ear, I just say thank you and off we go to our ear doc who happens to be very good. Our doc on the public end has otherwise been very good and generally we do first go there and if they suggest a specialist or we feel we need a second opinion, then we've hopped to the other side. Our daughter has had to see other than the ear doctor, an asthma doc, so we have to go quite often for these 'routine' check-ups...on top of all the other childhood stuff that comes along. Insurance has paid off for us...many times over, especially since we get both meds and doctors fees refunded (this also includes costs like the polikliniikka maksut at the hospital). Trouble is, you don't know if you'll need it really until you have your baby. Our reasoning for taking it before she was born was that we can always stop taking out the insurance if we feel we don't need it.

[raamv]

Generally the companies that you can ask a quote from are
tapiola.fi
Pohjola.fi
if.fi
http://www.Veritas.fi
I am not sure about Fennia and Fortum( Yes the electric company is now offering insurances)