■ Do you have enough life and disability insurance?
You should also plan to review your life and disability insurance coverage to ensure that your coverage is going to be adequate to meet the needs of your growing family. You may be surprised to discover just how much coverage is required to replace your contributions to the family. In addition to replacing any income you generate, your life and disability insurance needs to cover your share of all current and future household expenses, including mortgages, loans, and unpaid debts; the cost of your child’s education; childcare expenses; and — in the case of life insurance — such final expenses as funeral and burial costs, taxes, probate fees, and so on. If you discover that
you don’t have adequate coverage, you’ll want to get in touch with an insurance agent so that you can crank up your coverage sooner rather than later.
■ Is your health coverage adequate?
The basic health coverage that met your needs so well in your pre-baby days may not be quite so ideal as you switch into mother mode, so you’ll want to size up your health coverage as well. Basically, you’ll need to decide whether you’re looking for a health maintenance organization (an HMO is a nonprofit cooperative that provides medical care to individuals for a fixed fee each month provided that you choose a health care provider or healthcare institution from within the
network); a point of service plan (a healthcare plan that provides you with the built-in service guaranteed by an HMO plus the flexibility of seeing a doctor outside the network); a preferred provider plan (a network of doctors that provides discounted care to members of a sponsoring organization such as an employer or a union); or an indemnity plan (crème de la crème health coverage that allows you to choose your own doctor and hospital, but that tends to be prohibitively expensive). Note: You’ll find some tips on sizing up a health insurance plan further on in this chapter.
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