Insurance/deductibles/costs of having a baby

drae86 · January 2014

hey all, have any of you started researching how much this will cost in the end? I've been going thru my insurance policy and while very confusing I think it total it will be 5k (that's my deductible). But I dont think this is the actual OB visits (they appear to be covered). I think this is the delivery/place of delivery cost is what it's looking like.

Also looks like if I had switched over to Husband's insurance at the new year instead of keeping my own thru work it would have been cheaper....whoops. Anyone else researching and finding they're insurance isn't as great as ya thought?

lindsayturner · January 2014

Whoa that's crazy! Makes me glad I live in Canada! Although I don't get an ultrasound until 18-20 weeks

bridein08 · January 2014

Last baby was about 5k, this one will be close to the same.

mrandmrsbrist · January 2014

Last baby was $120 + $200. 10% of $1200 for a vaginal delivery (my insurance's contracted allowed amount with the hospital) and 10% of the $2000 fee from the doctors office. I had met my deductible by the time I got pregnant.

an02102 · January 2014

Mine will be a 5000 deductible as well. Thankfully we have an hsa so since we were planning this and will have the 5000 by august. Prenatal care is covered at 100%

nstark2908 · January 2014

I had excellent insurance last time. the total was $535 (ob visits + cs). This time I think it will be significantly more. I did choose the most coverage for this year, but I still think it will be a few thousand.

LisaKF3 · January 2014

My last was $3200. This baby I will probably reach my max out of pocket of $3500

bumpuser10199668 · January 2014

Mine is $700 for all ob visits and vaginal delivery

ChesTal · January 2014

My out of pocket max is $5000, so we will probably be hitting that between the doctor's and hospital's fee for delivery.

purplestarz · January 2014

I'm so happy I switched to my husbands insurance not too long ago. $0 deductible, $150 inpatient copay. I believe that's all correct, according to the website and his coworkers with the same plan. But I'm going to call to make sure since it seems too good to be true, even though the website had a section that clearly says "here is your cost to have a baby." Lol

portentosa · January 2014

I paid $3300 total for delivery/hospital costs.... 32 hours of labor, induction, IV antibiotics, and epi for me, 48 hours IV antibiotics and an echcardiogram for DS. I think the actual bill was $48,000.

For OB services and pregnancy labs I only payed a copay on my first visit, $30.

Ceridwen21 · January 2014

American mamas... do you have to pay more for things like epidural, C-section? Do you have to pay if your baby ends up in the NICU?

LTF525 · January 2014

Mine is a couple hundred dollars. I forget exactly. But we have an HMO so basically its just my hospital stay at $150/day with a max of three days

carryon23 · January 2014

I just pay $10/OB visit. Nothing for L&D/hospital stay. I was induced for #1 and #2 and had epidurals. Nothing extra. I am very thankful for our insurance.

Squiddly · January 2014

I am lucky. I have no copays for doc visits, no deductible, and $150 copay for L&D.

MMason12 · January 2014

I have a $250 annual deductible along with 100% coverage on labor/delivery along with zero office co-pays. So, all we have to pay out of pocket for our LO as far as appointments and L&D goes is $250.

Edited to add: @Ceridwen - I do not have any extra out of pocket expenses regardless of how L&D goes. As well if the baby or I end up in the hospital for any reason before, during or after L&D.

Our insurance also 100% covers the purchase of a breast pump. We are very blessed to have the insurance we have. During our last pregnancy and loss all the doctor, hospital, and other bills from the d&c totalled well over $20,000 and we did not have to pay anything out of pocket since we had already hit our $250 deductible before being pregnant last year.

We always have opted to pay the highest monthly premium for the most coverage we can get, which is a $250/person $500/family annual deductible, $10 copays, no referrals needed for specialists, and 100% coverage on everything you could imagine. My husband is a police officer and you just never know when something could happen where we could really-really need our medical coverage. In addition I have a surgical history that requires quite a bit of after care, so it helps having really good coverage.

mapchick77 · January 2014

I am on an Aetna HMO as a federal employee (DC area). Last baby cost me out of pocket $350 for all OB visits including two post-natal and delivery. This was paid upfront by week 26 of the pregnancy and I wasn't charged anything additional by them for the emergency c-section. The hospital bill was well over $20,000 for three nights, induction, epidural, antibiotics, 2 nights of NICU time for DS, etc. I don't know the exact percentage but we paid about $1,200 of that out of pocket.

Oh I almost forgot, the OB practice I use doesn't do U/S in house so I had to pay my specialist in-network copay for each one of those I had ($35).

Gottaluvpip · January 2014

I think mine will come to approx $1000; I have Kaiser PPO in socal, and the most out of pocket expense is $1000/after deductible, 90% of costs. And all prenatal visits are no charge...so its not too shabby.

wrightpalomo · January 2014

@drae86 I know that having a baby is a "life changing event" that will cause most companies will let you change insurance outside of the open enrollment period- maybe have your Hubbs check with his HR dept. and see if getting pregnant is also a "life changing event" so they can switch you over to his insurance?

drae86 · January 2014

That's exactly what we're trying to do now. It's not really considered a 'life-changing event.' From what he's told me, I would need to lose my job, or we need to get divorced and remarried lol. But having a child is a life-changing event. Since he just missed the open enrollment period (december) I told him to see if he could play the ignorant, 'I didn't see the email giving deadlines' and still try and make the change.

From reading over the majority of these responses my plan is about as bad as it gets. I do work for a smaller firm primarily of men though, so maybe this is why they didn't care too much about the high deductible.

wrightpalomo said:

@drae86 I know that having a baby is a "life changing event" that will cause most companies will let you change insurance outside of the open enrollment period- maybe have your Hubbs check with his HR dept. and see if getting pregnant is also a "life changing event" so they can switch you over to his insurance?

suitern · January 2014

I think last time it worked out to be roughly $50 to pay for food. My husbands insurance covers 100% of pregnancy related/delivery related charges as long as the place takes that type of insurance. I expect it to be very similar this time. Everything was covered, including several trips to L&D, extra ultrasounds, epidural, and stitches needed for my son's eye.

bainidhedub · January 2014

My insurance doesn't seem too bad... $20 copay for specialist visits, up to $150 for pre/post-natal care, then 10% coinsurance for everything. I have a $250 deductible and $1250 out of pocket limit.
When I had a mmc over the summer though, it sucked because I hit my entire deductible plus about $150 in three days. I was really not prepared for that.

chardonnay24 · January 2014

I bought this insurance plan right after I found out I was pregnant, so I was able to find decent maternity coverage. I pay my $750 deductible, and 15% coinsurance after that. The insurance estimator said it should cost me right around $1200.

lily8543 · January 2014

I was able to preregister through the hospital website really early last time and they had a financial advisor that gave me a much more accurate estimate than the insurance company could.

I paid around $650 for the delivery (10% of the around 6k the hospital billed for a vaginal delivery with induction) plus probably another $250 for the epidural and random other bills. I also paid a $20 or so copay for the first OB visit and 10-20% of labs/ultrasounds once my deductible was met. I should add that I work for the sister hospital of where I delivered and that this was in 2012. Our insurance doesn't cover nearly this well anymore and I'm on my husband's plan this year.

Also, if you pay in full up front/before discharge most hospitals around here will give you a discount (mine gave 10%).

emmylu30 · January 2014

Mine will be about $3,000 but we have a fairly low per paycheck premium. After looking at yearly premiums for lower deductible plans we decided on this one since overall cost was less.

fruitloop151 · January 2014

I looked at our insurance and it has a summary sheet, which randomly breaks down a normal birth and a c-section (how convenient!). Regular birth will be about $2,300 and c-section will be around $5k. all prenatal care is completely covered

SouthernMomma+3 · January 2014

I pay my first on visit copay ($25), then have a $300 deductible plus $200 hospital copay. So total it'll be $525. That includes anything and everything at the hospital. Healthcare bills are horrifying! Two years ago when I had my gallbladder out my hospital bill was $80,000 but I only had to pay my hospital copay. Thank goodness for insurance!

Ritzy19 · January 2014

Individual Deductible is $1500, but the out of pocket max is $3000 for our plan. That doesn't include any random co-pays that come up, so that might add on a little more. The Maternity care itself is covered at like 90% I believe, but I'll be having a repeat CS and I know those are super expensive. So I plan on maxing out that $3000 plus whatever random costs we get billed for the newborn's stay.

bumpuser5078523 · January 2014

Our deductible is $3,714, so we will end up paying that plus all the crap the nickle and dime us for. I think we ended up paying around $8,000 out of pocket for prenatal, delivery and 6 days in the hospital.

Ashleyrfiles · January 2014

I have a $25 copay for the first OB visit and then they are covered and $1000 for the hospital. I signed up for flex spending knowing we were trying and found out the day after it started we were expecting! So greatful I did that. All of our expenses will be paid for with pre-tax dollars

cmumama · January 2014

I honestly have no idea. We just got new insurance this month. I've always paid like $5k for my babies though.

henderson1026 · January 2014

Last baby was $800 to the OB and $3000 for c-section.

mana8503 · January 2014

$0. I'm going to call about the details later down the road, but the summary of benefits says pre/post natal care - no charge, delivery and all inpatient care - no charge.

We pay the higher premuim to cover more.

JustCricket · January 2014

I have to double check the exact numbers and percentages.. what I do know is we have a max yearly out of pocket of $2k. Unfortunately I think our insurance resets in August... lol not the best timing for baby...

eta-looks like 20% and only $1750 max out of pocket expenses for the year.

drae86 · January 2014

Anyone have any idea on how to cheat the system in switching health insurances without the 'life-changing' event? My husbands is way better as far as maternity goes.

I only have to pay 40 bucks a month for me including dental, and eyes thru work and it's great if you're not pregnant apparently. Actually the pre-natal is covered its the delivery that's the $$$$. My small firm is 95% males so i'm sure this is something they didn't need to cover for most people.

The premium may be higher by switchign to husband but the overall savings will be giant. I need to find a way, some loophole, to get on his plan. Maybe get fired for 3 days and rehired. Dunno, any ideas?!?!

Natspoiledbrat · January 2014

My insurance just changed

If I had the baby in 2013, it would have been a $750 copay for delivery and hospital and $40 one time copay for all of my ob visits. Now it is a one time $40 fee for ob visits, and 20% for all delivery and hospital charges, up to $2500. So I will probably have to pay the $2500. Luckily the baby is covered 100%!

charbear23 · January 2014

We will pay 700 OOP fit the year and then everything is covered at 100%. I will actually meet my deductible way before baby is born. As long as their is no nicu stay required baby is covered under me until we check out so no cost there.

When my son was born I had reached my deductible, my bill was 28k. However my sin had a 17 day nicu stay and it was 76k dollars, wet paid 700 dollars of that.

dana2die4 · January 2014

Our last pregnancy cost us the $20 copay for the first visit, the rest was covered at 100%.

rockychryslerb2010 · January 2014

Everything from initial appointment, lab work and several late ultrasounds totaled $1500 out of pocket for me, with the total bill coming in just shy of $15,000. I had a c-section and three night hospital stay.

jschweitzer5 · January 2014

My deductible is $500 and max out of pocket is $5k for me and the LO. When I had DS1, we did reach the limit and had to pay $5k. The total bill for my delivery was $55k for an induction, epi, 30 hours of labor and finally a Csection. I was in the hospital for 4 nights. Sad how bad my insurance is especially bc I pay a ton per paycheck for it.

purplestarz · January 2014

@drae86 unfortunately you're stuck, unless your husbands open enrollment is sometime between now and September, or you involuntarily lose your coverage (quit or get fired)

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