6 weeks pregnant - lost job and insurance
I need some advice. Last week my company that I was working for closed it's doors. That means that I am no longer covered with insurance along with not having an income. My husband and I are really excited that we found out that we are pregnant, but the no insurance has got me worried. My husband does not receive insurance with his job. I just found out that COBRA is not offered with my job. If I get a private plan then my pregnancy will be considered pre existing, although I have not been to the doctor yet. I think my only option is to file for Medicaid. If I do file for Medicaid I don't think I'll be able to get a job because then our household will be over the medicaid limit. AND if I get a job that has benefits I won't be able to use the benefits for 90 days, for most companies and I need to see a doctor before then. Anyone have any advice?
Re: 6 weeks pregnant - lost job and insurance
1) Apply for Medicaid and see what happens.
2) Typically OB visits for pregnancy are billed globally after the initial visit. This means that they will bill insurance for the first visit and then nothing until the baby is born. Make sure to double check with the doctor's office on this though.
First, take a deep breath and relax! I almost had a panic attack when this happened to me!
I got laid off a week before I found out I was pregnant. Nothing like worrying about health insurance to take the joy out of this! I worked for a small company, so we didn't qualify for federal COBRA, but there was something called State Continuation Coverage that they also referred to as mini-cobra. Of course, no one knew what I was talking about when I called BCBS of FL to sign up. Luckily, the person who handles the HR stuff from my old office helped get me in touch with the right people and the BCBS rep who sold our company the insurance finally figured it all out. I'm pretty sure this is a state thing, regardless of who your insurance carrier is.
That being said, the coverage was insanely expensive. We sucked it up and paid it since I didn't want to go on medicaid but it definitely put a dent in our bank account, which is even more awesome when you just lost your income. I eventually was able to get on DH's insurance mid pregnancy. I probably would have been fine just paying out of pocket until then since pregnancy can't be excluded on a group plan (I think), but we didn't want to risk it. Plus, the first trimester blood work screenings alone were going to be over 1k out of pocket on top of OB visits and ultrasounds, so was a wash in the end.
Good luck!