Merritt Personal Lines Manual: Optional Coverage: Childbirth
CHILDBIRTH COVERAGE
The benefit we will pay due to normal childbirth or normal pregnancy is shown on page ____.
The benefit we will pay for a Caesarean birth will be 1-1/2 times the benefit shown on page ____.
Normal childbirth or normal pregnancy means a pregnancy free of complication of pregnancy, as defined in the policy.
Normal pregnancy includes false labor, occasional spotting, physician prescribed rest, morning sickness, hyperemesis gravidarum, pre-eclampsia or similar conditions associated with the management of a difficult pregnancy.
Benefits will be paid only if the childbirth occurs:
(1) 10 months or more from the effective date of this coverage for the insured person and
(2) while this coverage is in force, except in event of the following.
If we elect to non-renew this coverage, we shall provide for an extension of benefits for a pregnancy that began while this coverage was in force and for which we would have paid benefits had the coverage continued in force.
This is an optional coverage that only applies to each insured for whom it is shown in the policy schedule (a married couple need only purchase this coverage for the wife). The benefit for normal childbirth is shown in the schedule as a maximum dollar amount (for example, $5,000). For a Caesarean birth, this policy provides one-and-a-half times the normal childbirth benefit.
"Normal" childbirth or pregnancy may include a difficult pregnancy, but it means a pregnancy free of "complications of pregnancy" as defined in the policy. Benefits are provided for such things as false labor, occasional spotting and morning sickness.
These benefits are paid only if the childbirth occurs more than 10 months after the effective date of coverage -- a woman cannot purchase these benefits late in a pregnancy. The benefits are usually payable only if the childbirth occurs while the coverage is in force. However, if the insurance company discontinues the coverage, it will extend the benefits to a pregnancy that began while coverage was in force.
