Stupid health insurance company!

[pinkmommy]

Well, stupid is not exactly my first choice of words.

We had a homebirth in December. It was an amazing waterbirth -- my second home waterbirth. First baby was born in the hospital -- I had an epidural. Second and third babies were born at home. Health insurance company just sent me a letter declining to pay for the water tub saying that it is not necessary for pain management. Sure -- I can go birth in the hospital and they'll pay whatever for an epidural, but they won't pay the small cost of a water tub. Nevermind that I saved the company thousands of dollars by having a homebirth. I am just so mad. I doubt my midwife will ask me to pay for the cost of using the tub, but for me it is just the principle of the matter.

I hope I can find the time to write a letter to respond to this.

[Artisan]

That is ridiculous! They could say the same of epidurals -- they're not "necessary" for pain management, but they still paid hundreds or thousands of dollars for you to get one!

Sorry to hear this!

[Eman'smom]

rrrrr insurance sucks, so you could get an epi, but no tub, they are so stupid, and we wonder why health care is so expensive.

Maybe you could get your midwife, or a dr or someone write you an RX for the tub.

[ebethmom]

Originally posted by Eman'smom

Maybe you could get your midwife, or a dr or someone write you an RX for the tub.

That sounds like a good idea! Who knows if it will work, but it may be worth a try.

Insurance just stinks. I hate their policies. I think the insurance that we have now is better than the sorry company we were with before. With ds, I had copays at every visit. This time I just have one $10 copay. With ds, our out of pocket expenses were over $3000. If we were still with that company, we would be paying $1400 per month, plus that $3000. Ridiculous.

I still wish that the birthing center up here was covered. It would be considered out of network (and out of our price range!). So it's another hospital birth for this baby. But this time with a midwife and (hopefully) no need for medical interventions.