Weekly Randoms (7/22-7/28)

craftywitch

@daffodil_shoe Not babycenter material is a compliment lol. That place is a $h!t show. No actual information to be found anywhere!

sassypants2010

Every bmb I have been in there is always a babycenter troll slithering through at one point or another.

jennv0701

Oh lord I forgot about the people wishing for early births. It's been a long time since I've been on a bmb!
My group with my first, at the end, would post pics of their discharge and ask if it was their mucus plugs. Multiple people did this. It was HORRIBLE. 
Girl, it might be time to cancel your internet. 

brookert615

@jennv0701 No!!!!

mandk1233

@jennv0701 That is so gross!!! 

ibabyloveb87

@babyroma announce however and whenever you want!! It’s your news to share. Despite if someone else has shared their news before you in a different way. 

ibabyloveb87

@jennv0701 oh no no no no no! 

celticknotfire

@jennv0701 wow that is crazy!  There are some things that are not meant to be shared!

@babyroma I wouldn't change your plans just because you are not the first.  This is a happy and excitng time so I see no harm in sharing that joy.

brookert615

I am going to cry with happiness. DH called our insurance to see what they covered in regards to prenatal testing since we need the forms filled out for our Thursday appointment and they told us it's 100% covered! 

jvk2012

I told @daffodil_shoe I would happily accept responsibility here. I called her out in a PM for being obnoxious. Sorry not sorry. 

brookert615

@jvk2012 I've never seen @daffodil_shoe be obnoxious, ever? If anything she's been super helpful and supportive! Sorry not sorry! 

doodleoodle

sassypants2010

daffodil_shoe

@babyroma I think you should still do it! Pregnancy isn’t a competition, so if your coworker feels like that, that’s on her. 

noxacanthus

@daffodil_shoe I don't think you're mean, just blunt. You share your honest opinion in a straight forward, blunt manner. In writing, without the aid of other social cues, that occasionally comes off as mean or condescending. It's happened to me before, both in writing and in person.

Fun fact, when you apply for a security clearance with the U.S. gov't, they interview your friends. In college, 3 of my friends were interviewed and they were all asked to describe me in 3 traits. All of them said "stubborn" and some form of "blunt"/"brutally honest" in their top 3.

sunshinegarden

All this talk about mocktails is making me drool it sounds so good. 

Hope everyone is doing good. This site is def. Better than the one I had 3 yrs ago. My last one had a lot of people with depression and I just couldn't lighten the mood bleh.

We are planning on moving to the middle east before the baby is born and we found out they cover 100% medical. Here in the states it was going to cost us 3,000$ at least.

brookert615

@sunshinegarden That’s amazing that they’re covering everything when you move! Where are you moving to? We are definitely blessed as well because of DH’s insurance as well, everything looks like it’s 100% covered as long as it’s in network! 

babybelugaco

@sunshinegarden
That's so awesome that they cover everything!!!
I just had totally real sticker shock after seeing the insurance claim today. I'm glad insurance picked up what it did but I may still be on the hook for $500 for my first appointment alone! 

Side note, does anybody else's insurance count US as Xrays?

brookert615

@babyroma Oh no! That’s insane! Hope it will work out and you don’t owe that much already! 😳 And that’s so strange that they are counting it as an x-ray? I wonder if they got some kind of coding wrong. 

babybelugaco

@brookert615
Right!! Dang near had a heart attack! I might ask them when I go Thursday. That "xray" was the biggest expense on the list of charges. Most of it lab work. I knew babies aren't cheap but at this rate I'll hit my deductible sooner rather than later lol

brookert615

@babyroma Yeah I sure hope it’s something they can fix. That’s just not right! I was under the assumption that maternity is usually pretty much covered across the board unless you opt to do beyond what’s listed for coverage. I’m sorry you have to deal with that! 

craftywitch

@babyroma We’re in the same boat this time. Last time all prenatal was covered 100% as preventative, but this time with different insurance it’s not covered at all and goes toward the deductible which we will definitely meet. I was spoiled thinking babies were free... We set up a payment plan.

leksiL

@babyroma I had a $3K deductible plan and fully have planned to hit our deductible in both 2019 and 2020 However the savings on premiums and the tax benefit we get for contributing the max to our HSA and the annual contribution from my company to he HSA is more than $3K so I am sticking to the same plan for 2020. It's hard to see the bills but at least we have the money set aside in the HSA. It seems like since we had DD we hit the deductible every year - she seems to need tube surgery and have some other ailment on an annual basis!

DDRRT1982

We’ve got people approaching the end of the first tri, right?  Who is 13 weeks?

mandk1233

@DDRRT1982 🙋‍♀️ My due date got changed at my ultrasound, so I am 13w1d now. Why do you ask? 

rikiteacup

People, check your insurances again. Prenatal care is considered preventative and should be covered 100%. Call your insurances and ask them to prove you this isn't the case.

tmk2021

@rikiteacup unfortunately some insurances don’t consider ultrasounds, blood work, and testing to be preventative care. That’s my case. In fact, I have to to hit my 5,000 deductible before they’ll cover 85% of my care. Luckily, we have a flex spending account that will cover most of it, but we’ll still be switching to another insurance that will activate in January, right before the baby is born. It’ll cover almost everything and we’ll just have to cover 1,500 for the hospital stay 🙏🏻

leksiL

@rikiteacup I work in insurance so you can believe I checked my plan thoroughly while planning to pay for this pregnancy   None of this counts as "preventative" care under my Policy.

I was under a normal (not HDP) plan last time and all of my pre-natal visits and tests were covered 100%, the only things OOP was the external version and the labor/delivery. That was nice but I paid a lot more for the coverage. I compared the costs between paying a higher premium and losing out on the $1K HSA contribution and $2000 tax benefit I get from contributing to the HSA and it is actually cheaper to go this route.

rikiteacup

@taylork2020 @leksiL this sucks. I used to have a HDP before switching jobs and even if my premiums are a little bit higher now ($50 extra per month) the money I am saving is more than making up for it.

tmk2021

@rikiteacup it definitely sucks and I admit, we should have looked into it further before getting pregnant. I should’ve switched insurances last year but figured what you did, that it was all covered no matter what plan it is. Boy was I wrong 😕 But thankfully we’ll be switching to something more manageable before baby comes. 

brookert615

That's so ridiculous! I know my previous insurance sucked so bad. Every single time I got blood work to monitor my Hashi's it was roughly 400 some dollars and I just asked to get put on payment plans that I'M STILL PAYING. So dumb. But it's like every 6 weeks to keep checking to see if I was responding to the dosages of meds. I'm so sorry you guys are dealing with that. Thankfully a lot of places do offer payment plans even if they don't say upfront if they do.

DDRRT1982

mandk1233 said:

@DDRRT1982 🙋‍♀️ My due date got changed at my ultrasound, so I am 13w1d now. Why do you ask? 

It’s just cool that we are starting to enter the second tri.

craftywitch

@rikiteacup With my previous HDP prenatal was preventative, but with this one it's not. I've triple and quadruple checked. We're in the same boat as @leksiL though- between the work contribution to our HSA, the tax benefit, and the fact that HDP is $19/month for the entire family, it's the best deal. Technically having DS was more expensive than this baby because overall my medical was 100% covered but rates were higher and they provided no paid leave whatsoever. With this job, the 1 month of 100% paid leave plus super cheap premium more than makes up for what my deductible will cost us. My husband works in finance though and crunched the numbers. It just feels like a worse deal looking at the medical bills.

rikiteacup

@taylork2020 pregnancy counts as a change of situation. I would try to see if you can change plans.

ETA: when I had a HDP, I always asked how much it would be if they didn't charge my insurance. It was always way cheaper. A simple doctor's visit was $200+ OOP after insurance. When I asked them to not bill my insurance, it was $120. That I paid with my HSA anyway. I wasn't worried about meeting my deductible since I was the only one on the plan. 
My friend on the same plan had so many health issues last year and she paid over $6K OOP and never reached her deductible 

rikiteacup

@craftywitch I am glad this will be better for you. I need to ask for the Maternity Leave plan at my work. I don't think it is even fully finished. I will be the 1st one to use it 

tmk2021

@rikiteacup I looked into it because I figured it was considered a “life change” like getting married. Unfortunately, only the birth of a child is 😕

celticknotfire

Not insurance related but money related is student loan repayments.  When I redid my paperwork a few months ago one of the questions for income related repayment plans asked if you have any children including unborn.  I'm thinking after the first trimester I'm going to redo both mine and MH's loans to see if I can save us some money.  I know it will take longer to pay back but it does get us a little bit more money for the moment.

leksiL

@celticknotfire just be sure you are at least paying the interest - you don't want your loan amounts to triple! 

celticknotfire

@leksiL good call!  I've been careful to make sure we are paying interest and then some. 

brookert615

@celticknotfire Good luck! Whatever you can do to hopefully make things a little easier!