# AXA PPP won't cover babies born of assisted conception.



## Hollybags

I'm not sure I'm posting this in the right place!

If you have health insurance cover with AXA PPP and need a caesarean, they'll cover your delivery in a nice private hospital. But if your baby was born as a result of ANY sort of assisted conception, and needs any extra care, time in SCBU, a paediatrician etc, that's not covered. Natural conception babies are. 

How awful! I had my son at the Portland, and he needed 3 nights in SCBU. No one could have predicted this, and it had nothing to do with his being an ICSI baby. And the cost, had our insurer (AVIVA) not covered it, would have been £12,000! The same delivery with the same docs at the same hospital would have meant my child wasn't covered and we'd have had to pay this ourselves, or transfer him to the NHS. 

Disgraceful, and discriminatory, I think!


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## ❣Audrey

Can I ask where you found this information?  We're with AXA and I am aware that the cover does not cover emergencies and actually states in the policy that it does not cover pregnancy at all.  It doesn't however mention a difference between naturally conceived children and assisted conception so I would be interested to know where this information came from?

xxx


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## gerry42

Hello I am also interested where this information came from, as we specifically checked AXA/PPP would cover our IVF girls, and they said their method of conception was not an issue.

There has also been a fairly recent change to private policies due to sex discrimination legislation that mean some treatment is available using your private policy during pregnancy.

I managed to get a cash benefit for spending several nights in my local NHS maternity ward.

Will get my DH to recheck the girls are still covered later.

Looking forward to find out where this info has come from  Gerry xxx


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## Hollybags

It's in the scheme handbook! I shall quote:

It's in the bit about pregnancy and childbirth - I'm not sure if the numbers will correlate with other people's handbooks as this is proprietary to my husband's company, but it says:

_5.6 The trustee does not pay for:_

_e) Any treatment for a baby born as the result of any method of assisted conception while the baby requires treatment in a Special Care Baby Unity, or requires paediatric intensive care. _

Then in the back of the handbook, in additional information it says:

_Can I add my new baby to my healthcare scheme?_
_You can appy to add newborn babies (who are born to the principal member of the principal member's partner) to the healthcare scheme from their date of birth. This can normally be done without filling out the details of the their medical history, provided you add them within three months of the their date of birth. However if the baby was born as a result of assisted conception there will be no cover for any treatment while the baby requires treatment in a Special Care Baby Unit or paediatric intensive care and you will be liable for these costs. _

We were with Aviva but the company have changed to AXA and as you can see, the cover is poor for newborns!

What I've also noticed is that if the baby went to SCBU, and the mother has already been discharged, they won't cover parent accomodation. This is because they ONLY cover parent accomodation if the child is receiving eligible private treatment. So even if you've had a nice private delivery, and the baby has to stay in a bit longer, then you have to sort and pay for your own accomodation rather than stay in a private room.

Ghastly.


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## Hollybags

Bee_bee said:


> Can I ask where you found this information? We're with AXA and I am aware that the cover does not cover emergencies and actually states in the policy that it does not cover pregnancy at all. It doesn't however mention a difference between naturally conceived children and assisted conception so I would be interested to know where this information came from?
> 
> xxx


Our handbook says that they don't cover pregnancy except for the treatment of medical conditions when they occur during that pregnancy or childbirth. Examples are placenta previa, failure to progress labour, eclampsia. I called them and it turns out multiples are covered as an indication for c section if the consultant says you need it. (I'm having twins.)


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## gerry42

Hi Holly, unfortunately DH has disposed of our policy book   . We renew in October so will check out the newborn cover then. Good thing is the girls are covered so it looks like it's the immediate neonatal care that could be an issue.

Perhaps different levels of cover offer different benefits, or it could be that AXA/PPP have been stung badly in the past so brought in this exclusion.  As we all know IVF babies do have a higher risk of congenital abnormality as opposed to those conceived 'naturally', which would lead to neonatal and paediatric care and huge payouts for insurance companies.

I totally agree it is ridiculous to offer women with assisted conception pregnancy's a private C/S but will then not cover neonatal special care if needed.  Who are the mum's to be who will most likely need a private medical insurance Cesarean section? Oh yeah the ones with breech baby's and the multiples, just the baby's with a higher risk of neonatal unit admission?

I hope you have it in you to challenge why they would pay for you to have a C/S for your twins, but not cover your beautiful babies?

Congratulations on your A/C children and hope you get the birth you want, where you want it.

Gerry xxx


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## Hollybags

Cheers Gerry. I couldn't find any published evidence that AC children have a higher risk of "defects" as AXA PPP charmingly call it except in severe male factor infertility. As it was, I didn't have ant fertility problems per se, just implantation issues caused by my immune system. But to have an exclusion like this would mean they can reject claims from anyone who has even had a whiff of clomid. 

What a disgusting company.


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## roze

An excellent reason to stay with the NHS if you ask me. Its free and babies who need special care get the best of treatment. The option to transfer to the NHS doesnt seem so bad to me and to be honest I dont see whats so good about private obstetrics as they are all trained with the NHS usually anyway. I had considerable experience of private care when trying to conceive in the UK and it really was awful. I was missed off the list when I went for a hysteroscopy and they tried to charge me extra for the room due to their error. No way!


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## Hollybags

Roze, I have no doubt that the quality of surgery on the NHS is just as good. The difference, and the reason I'm going privately is the post natal care. I have heard far too many takes of girls being left to cope post section, unable to move, on noisy wards, because the nurses and midwives are understaffed. The private option largely buys a way out of this, and into clean, individual rooms, better food, more staff and more one to one attention. I posted a thread about this a while ago on the twins bit of FF and the majority agreed that they would have liked more support afterwards.


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## Hollybags

Just to add, the NHS is far from free, and it irks me that we're effectively paying twice. A private unit in an nhs hospital is probably the best of both worlds.


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## vickym1984

Is probably too far for you to travel (not sure where in herts you are HB), but Watford do a room only package in their private suite within the hospital but not sure whether you get private postnatal care with that?


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## Hollybags

Thanks Vicky - Watford is where I'm considering - it's the nearest to us and has SCBU facilities. 

The cheeky cah at AXA, on the 'helpline' said "Can't you just have them on the NHS?"   
I wonder what she thinks we pay the bloody premiums for?!


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## Guest

Maybe slightly off topic but if you have multiples at Watford, from our experience, there's no difference between NHS and private.  I had my own room (some have ensuites) and at least one midwife in attendance at all times and no post natal problems at all with the staff.


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## Hollybags

Thanks Glitter, that's interesting. Were you in one of the private rooms that have just been refitted? I've heard they're lovely! Did you have your meals in your room? And were you able to pass the babies to the midwives if you needed a sleep?


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## Hollybags

I discovered today that CIGNA don't cover anything whatsoever to do with pregnancies resulting from assisted conception. It seems this discrimination is becoming more widespread.


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## purple72

This is all irrelevant really as there are NO private neonatal Intensive care units in england! There is definately a special care baby unit (private) but any private patient that neeeds neonatal intensive care gets transferred to an NHS level three NICU. DH and I are both neonatal nurses, he works in large level 3 in london which takes all of the portland patients (private SCBU) when they need intensive care


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## Guest

Hollybags - my two are nearly 2.5 years old so no, I was on the normal 'ward' which had rooms of 4 ladies/babies but my room was huge and I was by myself with the babies.  The first morning I missed breakfast (babies born 5.30am and was ages being stitched back up after a big tear) but they got me toast/ tea in recovery.  Meals were in my room and the menu was pretty reasonable actually! As far as I remember, breakfast was help yourself in a big room and DH got it for me.  Guests are supposed to be charged for tea/coffee however patients aren't so I had a lot of 'coffee' which DH had.
I found I actually knew of one of the nurses on the ward - she was the MIL of someone else I knew who'd just had twins 6 weeks before me so she was great.
As for passing over babies when needed a sleep, I can't say that really crossed my mind.  I slept when they did. I use sleep with caution as I have to say I just kept watching them and didn't feel the tiredness.


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## Hollybags

That's very interesting about Watford, thankyou! 

Purple, sorry to correct you but the Portland has a NICU as well as SCBU but I don't know what level it is. It's only very small - I've been in it. It's also on their website I think.


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## Guest

Depending on where you live in Herts, Stoke Mandeville is also an option.  Friend had her twins there recently and very postive (she had her first there too).


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## purple72

Holly hunny they may call it a nicu but in reality if a baby needs Intensive care, all portland babies go to St Tom's NICU, St Mary's NICU, St George's NICU dependent on who has bed's or they go to Gt Ormond Street if baby has specific needs. They can stabilize a baby who needs Intensive care but only long enough to ship it out. 

Sx


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