Trying to obtain insurance...

nightingayle · July 2009

Unexpected pregnancy = boyfriend and I are freaking out!

I can't possibly be the only one in this situation?!

What is everyone doing to cover their prenatal care? If you are choosing homebirth, how are you preparing yourself for an unexpected trip to the hospital?

Anything anyone has heard/found/experienced will be great.

Squishycheeks · July 2009

Do either of you have insurance that is available through work? It is illegal for an insurance company to consider pregnancy a pre-existing condition, so if it is offered they would not be able to deny you coverage.

Home births are great in my opinion, but I wouldn't attempt it without a trained and experienced midwife. Some insurance will cover a midwife's fees, and some will not. The average cost for a home birth where I live is between 2 and 3K.

A lot of people make the decision to homebirth based on how close they are to the hospital in case of emergency. A midwife will be trained on how to handle many emergency situations, but you still want to be close enough to a hospital in the rare case that either you or the baby need immediate medical attention.

ak1234 · July 2009

Look into a birthing center. They are a fraction of the cost of a hospital birth, and any one worth its salt will have a transition plan in case you need a medical intervention.

It is going to be basically be impossible to find individual coverage to cover your birth now that you are pregnant. Also, at many companies, you can only sign up for insurance certain times of the year, or when you begin working there.

murfygirl · July 2009

Just a few weeks ago I was in the same boat. A surprise pregnancy and no medical insurance. DH has terrible and expensive insurance through his work and my work has none. I was able to get state aid for medical insurance and they are covering everything. We live in different states so I don't know what your state offers, but probably that is your best bet. Good luck

anakin · July 2009

GL with this. And everything that has been said so far is good advice.

If you have insurance through work you could sign up but probably only during open enrollment. So even if it is there you might not be able to use it.

If your BF has insurance I don't know if you can get your prenatal through that. You could always find out. But again if he can get insurance but doesn't have it now it would be during open enrollment. If he has it and you aren't part of it and you get married (not that I support getting married for insurance) you can be added without waiting for open enrollment.

Your best bet is going to be a state plan. Every state offers something for pg ladies with no insurance. It is often based upon your income so if you don't make a lot you won't have to pay a lot, or even anything.

You could also just go to a midwife or OB and tell them your situation. Quite often they are willing to work with patients that have no insurance. My old OB had a payment plan for her uninsured patients. The total was $2400 for her part of the prenatal care and delivery. It was paid over 9 months and had to be fully paid before delivery.

The issue with that would be the hospital costs. The least expensive hospital bill I have ever heard of for a normal delivery was $15k and that was almost 5 years ago. So I imagine it is much more now.

Birth centers will be less, but they aren't available in all the areas of the country. For example there is not one in the city I live in. Home birth is always an option, but if you are considering it simply because you don't think you can pay a hospital bill, you shouldn't choose it for that reason. Seems like doing that would add more stress to your pg.

Explore all your options. If you can afford to pay for the first couple of visits then you have the time to see what is out there for you.

ETA: and I forgot to mention that you should probably just forget about private insurance. If you can get coverage the price will be extremely high ($500+ premium a month). And you might start the plan and then find out that your pg isn't covered anyway. I recently just tried to switch plans with the same private insurance we already have. If we did change plans my pg would no longer be covered. And again this would be staying with the same company. Finding someone who will coverage a pg will be pretty much impossible.

melpoteet · July 2009

Thanks for posting this I was curious about insurance too. I think everybody has good advice regarding state aid options. We currently have insurance through my husband being in the Army Reserves. His contract is up the end of September and I am due in March. I had already talked to my employer before becoming pregnant and was told we could enroll with the insurance as long as there was proof of ending the military term...but I was curious about the pregnancy aspect. It is good to know they cannot consider it a pre-existing condition.

nightingayle · July 2009

Wow, thank you for all the great info ladies!!!

OK, I hope I don't leave anything out here...

I work for a dayspa, so what they offer insurance-related is an excellent group discount through Aflac, which I'm still waiting for the agent to return my call...grrr...other than that, there's nothing I could apply for. I'm not sure what to expect from Aflac though...I know I won't get maternity leave $$ but that was expected and savings are accumulating as we speak.

BF is talking with his HR people about the details of the baby's coverage through his policy, so hopefully that will be easy enough. We had thrown the "M" word around long before the baby but we aren't running down the aisle just yet, and insurance won't hussle us along. I'm really hoping that state aid could pitch in somehow to cover my end of things, like a trip to the hospital.

I think I make too much for state aid, but if I've read the (confusing) outlines of the program, correctly, I think that even if I'm over the income, I just pay a bit myself? Didn't someone say that? lol sorry...short term memory lately ><

I ultimately chose a homebirth because it's what I've always believed in. Like many women have always known births to be by doctors in the hospital, I've always known them to be by midwives, at home more than anywhere else. It's just the way I've learned about this part of womanhood, so it was never a thought to go to the hospital. However, all of the homebirths I've known of, I have learned since, were very healthy, knowledgeable, women with low risk pregnancies. So, what could raise my risk rating has been brought to my midwife's attn and we are going to monitor my progress, but she has good feelings and is a trusted women in my circle of friends, so I have good feelings

The mindset I've grown up with is "expect the best, but be prepared for the worst", and so I'm looking for aid to cover that possible chance I need to be admitted. We are paying cash for the midwife and really only need a hospital visit covered. I don't even know if this is possible, or who to call to ask this question lol Ultimately, I'm just triying to avoid a hospital bill, or only pay a fraction of it, if need be.

I'll see what I can find with the state aid and update...just for any others in my boat.

Thanks again ladies!

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