Adding your baby to your health cover

Did you know that your health cover doesn’t automatically include your baby?

This is important if your baby needs to be admitted to hospital as an inpatient (for example, if they need treatment in a special care nursery or neonatal intensive care unit). If you’re expecting a multiple birth, you’ll also need to make sure each baby is included in your cover. This is because your second or subsequent babies would be separately admitted to hospital as inpatients, which means the hospital charge a separate accommodation fee. 

How do I add my newborn baby?

To add your newborn baby to your policy from their date of birth or inclusion in your family unit (e.g. through marriage, adoption or fostering) you’ll need to have commenced your Medibank membership no later than that date and add them within the timeframes below. Doing this means they’ll only have to serve the waiting periods that haven’t been served by the policy holder.

Single membership

You must contact us within two months of the baby’s date of birth or inclusion in your family unit. The baby will be added to your policy from their date of birth/inclusion which means you’ll need to change to a family or single parent family cover and higher premiums will apply from this date.

If you add your newborn more than two months after their date of birth/inclusion, they can only be added to your policy from the date you contact us, the higher premiums will only apply from this date, and they’ll have to serve all applicable waiting periods.

Couple or family membership

You have up to 12 months to contact us to add your newborn to your policy. You can choose to have the baby added to your policy from their date of birth/inclusion in the family unit, or commence from the date you contact us or any future date you choose. 

If you add your newborn more than 12 months after their date of birth/inclusion, their cover will commence from the date you contact us or any future date you choose. 

As long as your Medibank membership commenced no later than the child’s date of birth, they’ll only have to serve the waiting periods that haven’t been served by the policy holder.

Most covers allow you to add a newborn to your policy, but eligibility can vary. So it is important to call us on 132 331 to confirm your policy eligibility and get help adding your newborn to your cover.

What will Medibank pay benefits toward? 

If you have Medibank Hospital cover that includes pregnancy and birth services, and you have served the 12-month waiting period, we’ll pay benefits towards:

• overnight and same day hospital accommodation in a private hospital (less any applicable excess)
• intensive care 
• medical services where a Medicare rebate applies
• overnight and same-day accommodation in a shared room if you’re a private patient in a public hospital (less any applicable excess)

You’ll need to pay any hospital excess and/or per-day payment (also known as a co-payment) that applies to your level of cover. There may be other expenses that you’ll need to pay, such as TV hire, newspapers, parking or other items such as crutches. The hospital should discuss any charges with you.

Waiting periods

Waiting periods may apply for both Hospital and Extras cover. For pregnancy and birth services and pre-existing conditions, there is a 12 month waiting period from the time that you became insured or changed your cover to include new or upgraded services. This waiting period applies regardless of the baby’s due date or whether you were pregnant at the time of taking out or upgrading your cover to include pregnancy and birth services.

Medibank won’t pay benefits towards any items that you purchase or services you receive while you’re serving a waiting period.

For more information

Please see the Cover Summary or Member Guide for more information.