Arrival of new born baby is one of the joyous moment for the parents and family. It’s in fact a dream come true for first time parents. But this starts a phase of savings as expenditures rises. So how should parents manage to overcome this and yet secure their family’s financial future?

The first and foremost important step is to save on medical expenses and one of the best solution is buying a health insurance for new born child. As the cost of medical treatments/medicines are going up, it is utmost important to reduce these expenses as your child grows up. Sooner you consider taking policy better would be for you to save money during any medical emergency, as cost would be borne by the company. Also read about low cost medicines in India.

There are hardly any insurance companies in India providing separate medical insurance for new born child. So in such cases, parents should add their child under their existing group policy or family floater. Get to know why personal policy is important.

Criteria for adding new born child:

The three most important points to consider before insuring your child are:

1. Age: Not all insurance companies permit adding new born baby under group or family floater unless he/she is 90 days old. But there are a few insurers who allow child to be covered right from the first day and these are typically offered under group insurance as a part of maternity benefit. Once your child is added, various medical tests can be covered such as vaccinations etc. which actually costs very high when done in a private hospitals. However under family floater, a child can avail health insurance benefits till they reach the age of 21 years.
2. Intimating insurance companies: Once child is born, you should make a point of intimating your health insurer within a week, so that insurer will start processing immediately and this way you can avoid last minute problems. Insurer will also update you on additional cover as a part of the policy. If your child is covered after 90 days, then you should add the baby’s name while renewing the policy in the next year.
3. Documents required: During renewal when you add child’s name under the policy, you would need copy of child’s birth certificate, maternity discharge card and medical history. These are the mandatory requirement by the insurance company.

Annual premium: Once all the documents are verified and child is added, the company will revise the premium amount. Once you pay the revised premium amount, policy would start covering your child. Also check out insurance for pregnant women in India.

Few insurers for newborn child in India:

There are many companies automatically covering new born baby or include them after 1 year of buying of the policy after baby completes 3 months. Here are the prominent ones:

• Life Insurance Corporation (Health Protection Plus)
• Star Comprehensive Insurance Policy
• Religare Health Insurance – (‘JOY’) – Covers maternity and newborn baby
• Apollo Munich – Premium Family Health Insurance – Also covers maternity expenses

Once your child turns 5 year old, insurance company can offer individual cover for the child.

Ok, we’ve discussed about health insurance for newborn. Now let’s shift focus from health to investments for girl child. Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, a investment scheme launched aims to create wealth for securing the future of a girl child. For e.g. investing Rs. 30, 000/year will earn return of Rs. 15, 78, 153 after 14 years.