health insurance for new borns

hi all,
I recently sent in my receipts to my health insurer. My baby was placed on my cover when he was born free of charge by my health insurance company, until my renewal date.
However, I now realise that he was not free of charge at all. I have an excess of 220euro on my policy. Now that my baby was added automatically by the company, my excess doubled and therefore for the short time I had him on my policy it cost me 220 euro.
So worst case senario, your child is born a day or two before your renewal date, this changes your policy from an individual to a family policy, therefore increasing your excess from 220 to 440 euro. So for a days cover it would cost 220 euro. Far from free until your renewal!!
Has anyone else experienced this?

usually new borns are added from their date of birth in case they are born with congenital conditions,eg, newborn jaundice, cardiac problems etc.. if they were added at a later date, they would probably be classed as pre-existing conditions and not covered.
suppose it was just back luck it was towards the end of the year that your baby was added to the policy and it effected the excess. if you did have any expenses for the baby, they could have been added as well. have you tried calling the insurance company and ask if they can do anything ?

hope baby is doing well and healthy...

thanks for asking, the little guy perfect. I understand that it is important to be covered from day one. However, I think that the excess for new borns should be calculated for the amount of time they are covered on your policy.

When my son was born end September 2005 I rang my insurance provider(Bupa at the time) as the renewal date of policy was 10th October. They agreed to cover him free of charge until renewal date Oct 2006. I moved insurance end August last year as they were running special offer-kids half price(have daughter who was 3 at the time) and because it was his before his first birthday they gave the year's coverage(for him) free! Was a great bonus as I was moving insurance providers due to Bupa's uncertain position in the market and the very attractive offer at the time of half price kids.Congrats on your new arrival.

When my son was born he was automatically added to my policy. I don't think it changed my excess or anything but since my maternity was the only claim and it went through automatically it didn't affect anything. What I thought was strange though was that I didn't ask for him to be put on as we had decided that he'd go on my husband's policy which had a €1 excess for outpatient coverage, thinking that any claim for the baby would most likely be for gp visits. I think if it had changed my excess I'd have been very put out especially as I hadn't requested it.