January 2016 Moms

Medical Bills

sooo.... After the birth of our little one, we have been hit with 6,000 in medical bills. We have the highest level insurance and pay 500 a month for it. I suppose I just needed to vent. This is absolutely rediculous.

Re: Medical Bills

  • KFrobKFrob member
    We're in the same boat. The only bill I paid off right away was the anesthesiologist bc it was totally worth it haha. The other bills I'm afraid I will be paying for years. I'm not sure how to pay them off before we have another baby, or if we can even afford to do this again. It makes me really stressed. 
  • Same boat here too. So frustrated. With my son, we didn't pay a penny. Now with this baby, we're somewhere around $6,000 in medical bills... adios to my tax return, plus a bunch. 
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  • Call the billing department and set up a payment plan. It makes it much more manageable.
  • ChrissyD1203ChrissyD1203 member
    edited April 2016
    Keep track of what you pay so you can see if you can deduct the expenses on your 2016 tax return.  That sucks though!
  • Wow, for that level of insurance, I'd think your bills would be much lower.  What's your deductible?
  • We're at about $2000. I had to set up a payment plan with the hospital. It's crazy how much they charge when you have insurance (and how much you pay for insurance). I had my gallbladder out last weekend. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell the lady that admitted me to just add it all to my tab. 
    Me: 31 DH: 40
    Married 2012
    TTC #2 since July 2016
    PCOS diagnosed 2008
  • I had to set up payment plans with 2 of them, but there were so many small, separate bills that it was ridiculous. They couldn't combine any of them! $750 to the nurse for my epidural, $1500 to the doctor for my epidural, $2000 to my OB, $2000 to the hospital, plus more! Unreal...
  • I'm thankful for ours. For a csection and three days in the hospital we are looking at $4K. I'd be complaining to the hospital. It's outrageous how much they charge and how much fraud they get away with when it comes to births. I work in the industry. And I can tell you it shouldn't cost $52 for a Motrin. That's how much they billed my insurance every time I received a Motrin. All those "free" things they give you aren't free. You end up paying for it. 
  • I was so confused when I saw how much they billed the insurance for things.  The over the counter pain killers cost more than the epidural.  Wtf?
  • It all has to do with Obamacare. Not to say that it hasn't helped countless people, but it definitely screwed over the middle class that pay for insurance and then pay out of pocket a ridiculous amount. Thankfully we have a $3k out of pocket max per person per year, so now I'm just taking advantage of it and going to as many doctors as I can lol. It also helped out with all the added procedures like the d&c, unexpected hospital stay and now even more procedures. No fun, but definitely better that they are 'free.'
  • My hospital stay and Griffins NICU stay was a price tag of over $40k, for the week stay in the hospital for me and the 9 days that DS was in NICU. 

    I ended up up with a $100 deductible for myself and another one for him. That's it. NY state insurance for teachers is AMAZING. DH and I were totally anticipating some sort of bill because of the NICU stay, but it was covered. 

  • @teachmegs817 wow! That's impressive. I actually left my insurance with the school I was working at and jumped on SO's because they told us that everything would be completely covered... not even close. 
  • You guys might be paying more merely because a majority of the prenatal care was in 2015 but the delivery was in 2016 so the plan starts over and you end up paying the max both times. I could be wrong though. 
  • All of you are saints for figuring out the bills for delivery. My DH is a state trooper so we have state insurance and I literally paid zero for my $48k hospital bill. When my girlfriend told me her bill was $8k for her delivery I couldn't believe it. I work for healthcare companies, granted the Medicare side, so I understand how it all works for the most part, but that is such a big chunk of money. 
  • Lurking from Feb 2016(my babe was born 2 minutes into Feb so he's pretty much a Jan babe too).

    My OBGYN office is horrendous and decided that they would just not file to my primary insurance. I called and had them fix it...now my primary is saying I owe $51,000 because the insurance wasn't filed in a timely manner. My secondary wrongfully paid the whole bill, so they are suing the OBGYN office for the money...it's a whole mess! 
  • If my little guy had been born December, I wouldn't have to pay anything as I had hit my $1500 deductible.  But with the change of the year, my insurance plan changed and my family deductible is $6800 rather than $3000 with my previous plan.  So we'll be setting up a payment plan with the hospital.  Partially unpaid maternity leave plus hospital bills really makes it tough
  • Sheesh! Sorry, ladies. Why the heck to you have to pay so much? I don't understand the point of paying for insurance if you get reamed when you have to use it. I always tell people that's the major perk of being a teacher in CA. We don't get paid much (at least not as much as I think we should), but we do have amazing insurance. I paid a $10 physician's fee to have my daughter. That's it. 
  • We have state insurance as well and we paid $175 of the $50k hospital bill. I don't understand how they can charge that much, it blows my mind. My mom worked in billing for a hospital and she said the hospital would pay $7 for crutches and bill the patient $150! I also hate getting a bunch of separate bills, and I wish they would just combine everything. In total we paid about $2,000 (hospital, epidural, pedi on call, etc.) 


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  • What shocked me was rhe breakdown of my bills and how the things that you would think would be the most expensive were the least and vice versa. I was amazed that my OB's charge to do a csection was one of the cheapest things! 
  • claireloSCclaireloSC member
    edited April 2016
    ekscopp said:
    It all has to do with Obamacare. Not to say that it hasn't helped countless people, but it definitely screwed over the middle class that pay for insurance and then pay out of pocket a ridiculous amount. Thankfully we have a $3k out of pocket max per person per year, so now I'm just taking advantage of it and going to as many doctors as I can lol. It also helped out with all the added procedures like the d&c, unexpected hospital stay and now even more procedures. No fun, but definitely better that they are 'free.'
    How is Obamacare to blame for this? 

    With everything we hit our max out of pocket for me ($4500) but they billed my insurance over $29,000 just for my hospital stay! $7500 for epidural and $5000 for a vaginal birth. Crazy. Someone should have paid me $5000 for birth! 
    Baby Birthday Ticker TickerMarried DW <3 08.2013; AI 2x; IUI 6x; IUI #7 05.2015; DD born 2.2016 o:); Reciprocal IVF FET #1 on 11.18.2020 
  • ekscopp said:
    It all has to do with Obamacare. Not to say that it hasn't helped countless people, but it definitely screwed over the middle class that pay for insurance and then pay out of pocket a ridiculous amount. Thankfully we have a $3k out of pocket max per person per year, so now I'm just taking advantage of it and going to as many doctors as I can lol. It also helped out with all the added procedures like the d&c, unexpected hospital stay and now even more procedures. No fun, but definitely better that they are 'free.'
    There's no way obamacare is to blame for this. Uninsured individuals who get medical help and cant pay their bills are what prompted obamacare in the first place. It gets a vast majority of uninsured individuals insurance. It got rid of shitty loopholes for pre existing conditions LIKE BEING PREGNANT. It also created maximum out of pocket limits and got rid of lifetime payout amounts. Hospitals have to make up the costs they lose from people not paying their bills. Is it right that an ibuprofen costs $70/pill? Hell no but without hospitals no one could get medical help. With obamacare, there's less financial loss to the hospitals because more people have insurance. 

    I'm not sure what middle class you think you belong to but if you think you're paying too much for insurance each month through the marketplace (and can't get a government subsidy to offset the costs) then you're most likely making more than 400% of the poverty level for your county. I live in one of the cheapest cost of living locations and I'd have to make more than $80k a year to not get some kind of subsidy. So go ahead and tell me how much Obamacare has personally hurt you.
  • l4rkl4rk member
    We have state insurance as well and we paid $175 of the $50k hospital bill. I don't understand how they can charge that much, it blows my mind. My mom worked in billing for a hospital and she said the hospital would pay $7 for crutches and bill the patient $150! I also hate getting a bunch of separate bills, and I wish they would just combine everything. In total we paid about $2,000 (hospital, epidural, pedi on call, etc.) 
    How the eff is that legal?! I wonder if people would even need insurance if hospitals billed at cost and governments subsidized the overhead and salaries instead... hmm...
  • @l4rk I completely agree, it's really messed up!


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  • When I had my first I was under my dad's federal insurance and we paid a $400 deductible. This time around? I paid $3,000+ in premiums, we'll have a $3,500 deductible plus more in sure. It's absolutely ridiculous. I'm applying for charity care. I gave birth in a catholic hospital so I am hoping that means I can get a break. I've also been told you CAN a lot of the time negotiate a bill down. I am going to do whatever I can to negotiate this bill down or pay less of it because we're in a financial crisis right now and having to make payments every month would mean I'll be bringing home so much less disposable income. 

    I work for a doctor's group and I hate insurance companies and insurance in America. It's the absolute devil. We NEED a national health care system that people can OPT OUT of. 
    Vincent 1.1.16 & Daniel 11.6.07
    In Memory of Barbara <3 , beloved mother and grandmother



  • We NEED a national health care system that people can OPT OUT of. 
    So if they opt out and can't afford care, what happens then? 
  • Our biggest issue is that our insurance company dropped us after 30 days because they apparently didn't receive our confirmation information that we faxed in. So all of baby's expenses after 30 days including her vaccines are not covered. As soon as we realized she didn't have insurance, we bought it on the matketplace, but it's pretty scary that she went without it for 2 months. I'm currently in the process of disputing. 
  • I had super awesome insurance and I got Medicaid on top of that so I didn't pay anything out of pocket for my pregnancy.
    However, you do need to know when you are in the hospital they aren't charging just for the medication or whatever that was done. They are charging for the nurse or doctor providing it. So the medication or whatever may seem a whole lot, but it's also for the health care staff giving it.
  • edited April 2016
    @MamabeagleClearly you don't understand what I said. They can opt out of if they want to buy privatized health insurance. Instead of needing to apply for assistance, everyone would automatically be enrolled in the NHS. 
    Vincent 1.1.16 & Daniel 11.6.07
    In Memory of Barbara <3 , beloved mother and grandmother
  • @MamabeagleClearly you don't understand what I said. They can opt out of if they want to buy privatized health insurance. Instead of needing to apply for assistance, everyone would automatically be enrolled in the NHS. 
    Thank you for clarifying. I'm all for federal insurance covering everyone and simplifying the convoluted system we have now. 
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