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Natural Birth
Anyone Delivered Without Insurance?
DH's insurance sucks and I'm self employed so we're just paying for the delivery out of pocket. So far it's not bad - my midwife's only charging $2200 for prenatal and delivery. I'm a little concerned about the hospital portion of the bill though...anybody know roughly what we'll be facing with that? We're still looking into home birth options because I had an awful experience delivering DD and REALLY don't want to deliver in a hospital again but if we end up having to go that route...how bad a bill am I looking at? What about for a home birth?
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Re: Anyone Delivered Without Insurance?
For my first hospital birth, the CNMs were only charging around $2000 for all of their services; however, the hospital bill for two nights (one in labor/delivery and one in recovery) and a natural childbirth with no pain meds (only advil after) was out-of-pocket around $7000. My insurance negotiated it down to $3200, but still if I would have had to pay out of pocket, it would have been that $7000 they would have wanted. Plus another $600 for the baby's services (and he roomed in the entire time and never had any procedures/nursery stay/interventions).
So I guess what I'm saying is talk with your hospital before and try to negotiate a rate that is similar to insurance paitents. Or look for a free-standing birth center. I know the one I delivered in Englewood was with CNMs and only cost about $2800 out of pocket for all services (prenatal/labor/delivery/newborn care). Mountain Midwifery is a great option for anyone, but especially for people without insurance.
Are you united with the CCOKCs?
I'll check them out, thanks so much!
We have insurance but elected not to use it for DS2. We paid our MW OOP. A flat fee of $3,500 covered prenatal care with her (no labs beyond urine dips or ultrasounds were included. We used insurance for those), birth*, and post-partum care. Other MWs in my area charge about $4k (we got pre-payment and cash discounts). That doesn't answer about your hospital question, but hopefully it helps a bit with the non-hospital option.
*home or natural birthcenter birth. They do not deliver at a hospital.
Oh, if you are in the hospital, you will save big bucks by going natural. With DS1, I elected a medically beneficial epi at 55 hours into labor. When I got copies of what my insurance was billed, it blew my mind that the cost for just the anesthesiologist and epi was about as much as everything else combined.
More Green For Less Green
A natural, spontaneous hospital delivery, no NICU stay for baby, standard 2 nights postpartum billed my insurance more than $16k. (insurance negotiates to pay them less than this, but if we paid OOP we would be stuck with the whole bill unless they cut us a deal.) If I remember correctly, half of that was delivery and half was the 2 night stay. My OB billed separately for both postpartum care and for delivery.
I'd call and ask the hospital what they usually bill. They'll have a good idea. I'd also ask about what happens if there are complications - you should be ready to handle a bill for a cesarean.
Also ask the hospital about payment plans. Around here, you can get interest free for a year (sometimes better) and longer plans with interest.
ETA: Your DH's insurance may suck. But they usually have an out-of-pocket max that could limit your bills in the event of the worst (emergency c-sec and a NICU stay, or complications for you). Childbirth is unpredictable and expensive and I would never want to go into it without any insurance coverage. If you can do a home birth and avoid the hospital, you'd only be out the amount of money you spent in premiums. But if you end up in the hospital, it could save you from mountains of debt.
I had a spontaneous, med-free, vaginally delivery with a two-night stay that cost about $7K.
And despite a complication-free pregnancy and labor, DD aspirated meconium and developed respiratory distress syndrome, which landed her in the NICU for a week. That bill was about $25K. (Thankfully I owed nothing OOP after my insurance was applied.)
I would definitely explore all of your options well before it's time to deliver so that you're not faced with a huge sticker shock should something happen and you need a c-section or a NICU stay.
TTC since 11/05...ectopic pg 4/08...early m/c 6/09...BFP 10/5/09!
Nora B...June 15, 2010...8lbs, 8oz...Med-free birth!
TTC #2 since 7/11...cycle #3 of Clomid + IUI = BFP
Malcolm...September 21, 2012...8lbs, 6oz...Another med-free birth!
Wow, I knew we lived in a HCOL area, but didn't know it was that bad.
Same insurance for both kids.
DS1 (9/09) was roughly $17,000 (I believe that was MD and hosp bills...we didn't pay anything).
DS2 (6/11) was roughly $24,000 (again, I believe that was MD and hosp bills...we didn't pay anything).
Epidural with DS1; no meds (2.5hr labor) with DS2. No NICU eval or stay for either; just routine well-baby care. Craziness.
I'm uninsured (DH is an independent contractor and before I was laid off due to the small business I worked for closing I didn't have access to anything but emergency insurance through Aflak
).
We're having a home birth but we are VERY close to 2 excellent hospitals in case of emergency.
My midwives told me that a hospital will usually take whatever you give them if you cut them a check before you leave the hospital. The way they see it as soon as you walk out the door they may never see a penny from you so they settle up.
If that doesn't work just pay them $1 a month until doomsday. As long as you are making payments you are in the clear.
Maybe that's just how my town works. Discuss it with your midwives and see what their advice is. If you are low risk, like me, homebirth is perfectly safe but it was so comforting to know that we have a contingency plan for emergencies and the means to carry it out.
I am also an independent contractor and DH is self employed. We also have a $7500 maternity deductible . . . but we pay about $360/month for insurance.
With #1, we paid our midwives $3600 then the hospital bill was $2400. At that time our deductible was $5000 and insurance paid NOTHING. Even though we had paid more than our deductible. I had an un-medicated birth, not even a tylenol, DS didn't have a bath . . . literally, we had the hospital do nothing other than routine NB checks. No vaxes either. We were there for just over 24 hours. I gave birth within an hour of arrival.
With #2, we will pay our MW about $3600 and that will cover all care except the NT scan and a/s we will have done. I did call my insurance to see if any of them OOP expenses will be added to our deductible, and it doesn't look like they have her as an "allowed provider" so likely not. We'll still send the bill . . . just in case. I did find out, however, that insurance will pay up to $500/year in labs (which include u/s) so we won't totally have to pay OOP for our NT and a/s.
Good luck, I hope you are able to figure out a solution that you're comfortable with.
We have similarly poor insurance options (both of us are self employed) and have gone without for the past few years. Instead, we just save the money we would have been paying so we have solid savings just for health care expenses.
With our DS, I originally planned to go to the midwives I saw for DD but we had some things happen in the hospital that we weren't thrilled with so in the end decided on a home birth. With the HB midwife, we ended up paying about $3000 - it would have been a little more, but we switched to her at 20 weeks and had already done some testing with the other midwives.
The hospital stay with DD was around $13,000 - but that included at least 3 days in special care and another night under the lights for jaundice. I think the midwives were around $5,000 including all the testing but at that time we had insurance that covered.
For anything we've had done beyond the basics, everyone has been willing to work with us on the price, giving a discount is possible, etc. and it seems like the same is true for your area. I think just being upfront about the situation and letting them know you're willing to pay helps a ton.