I'm thinking I actually might not. It will be an extra $300 a month to put him on mine, which is crappy coverage as it is, and $600 a month to add him to DH's! I looked it up and the average medical costs for baby's first year are only about $700. So I'm thinking of setting up an unofficial health savings account and using that to just pay cash at doctor visits. Anyone have experience with this?
Update: You guys brought up some really good points and changed my mind. I'm looking into other options.
Re: Adding baby to insurance
9.6.12 - Crazy J entered the world
4.30.14 - Sweet Angel Micah John lost to T18 at 7 months pregnant
2.8.16 Miscarriage at 6 weeks
4.30.16 BFP *stick baby stick*
I also think not having insurance is bad idea. You have no idea what's going to happen. I don't know how much medical expenses cost with DS in the first year, but it was probably way more than 700. We had all the regular check-ups, his umbilical stump took five weeks to fall off and they cauterized it twice ($150 each time), and he was sick a few times (ear infections, bronchialitis).
Not getting insurance is definitely a gamble. Personally, if it came down to money, I'd insure the baby and get rid of my own.
$300/month is a lot, but it's not insurmountable and honestly, in this day and age, it's absolutely necessary to have health insurance. One minor incident with your kid could cost way more than the $3,600 worth of premiums you're talking about here.
Thank you. That's what I keep trying to tell myself, that there is no perfect time and we're way better off than lots of people who are having kids (better off than my parents were when they had me!).
Everyone else gave you good advise!
MUCH more than 700 a year. Put your baby on insurance.
Two more aw shit instances that highly encourage insurance
DS2 got bronchitis at 6 weeks old due to an irresponsible relative. He then had asthma that required 3 er visits a nebulizer, and medications all before he was a year old.
DD My mom was walking up stairs with DD when she was ~6 months old, tripped over a dog (not mine) and fell. DD hit her leg on a step just right to break it. We took her to the ER and they said probably just bruised, took her back the next day because she was favoring it and they did xrays which showed she had broke it. Had a splint put on, multiple xrays and multiple specialty visits totaled about $10k. Thankfully we were double covered.
13 yr old boy with ASD, ADHD and PICA, 11 yr old boy, 3 yr old Girl, & baby Girl.
DH has private insurance (we actually got his most recent plan through the ACA site) that his employer reimburses him for (small business he manages, so they don't have a company policy, yet). I think our cheapest/best option is going to be either shopping through the ACA site (I think the top options with the most coverage were about $180/month) or looking for another private plan. If we end up having a second child, then we will probably look at adding them both to my plan unless private is cheaper then as well.
Even with good coverage we paid well over $2k that first year and I don't even want to know what it would have been if we didn't have insurance!! I hope you can find a solution that works for you.
>
I do appreciate the suggestion, but we are no strangers to living as cheaply as possible. All of our vehicles are paid off and we have only liability insurance, so can't cut that out. We only spend about $75 a week on groceries. It's student loan payments that are killer. And we had gone without cable for a long time and then got Direct TV when we thought we were a little better off than it turns out we are, but that's a contract so we can't cut it (although I'd be more than willing to). We also paid off all of our credit cards when I won money on a game show, but had to charge one of them right back up when out cat needed emergency surgery. That game show money is what's killing me...I know we were mostly responsible with it but we went overboard helping out family and friends instead of setting more aside for the baby and I can't help but be furious with myself. I mean it was a good chunk of change that was just handed to me and I can't reconcile that we're basically in the same immediate financial situation as before I got it, even though we paid stuff off. I know I would have spent it differently if I had known how the medical costs were going to be but I just had no idea how the system works. Didn't know how bad my insurance is or how expensive it would be to add a dependant. We did set some of my prize money aside into an IRA and some more into a college fund for the baby, and I would like to avoid it but worst case scenario we could dip into that. Shouldn't be an issue though because I looked into ACA plans and it told me right off that based on our monthly income we are eligible for Medicaid. I hate doing that because part of me is a little bit prideful about accepting government assistance and the other part of me feels like I'd be taking advantage when there's people who need it way more than we do, but I decided not to let either pride or humility stand in the way of my son's healthcare. And it will only be for a year until DH finishes school and goes active duty and then we'll have Tricare through the military.
Wow sorry I just wrote a damn novel about our financial situation! I'm really glad I posted this thread though. I think I knew it was a bad idea and needed people to talk me out of it with good reasons.