No Maternity Coverage--Worst Case Scenarios?

[camprunner]

I'm still working through this one. I officially quit the job with benefits in late may and our insurance will run out at the end of August. I've got to get new health insurance for our family. We want to start TTC right away once we have health insurance in place. All plans we are looking at claim to cover "complications of pregnancy" but no one states what specifically they will cover. What IS a complication of pregnancy?

We will plan a homebirth, most likely with a CNM who will deliver twins (my mothers sister had fraternal twins but they were the first set in like 200 years) but not breech. We would have to pay for her out of pocket anyway.

So....what are the worst case scenarios that would send us to the hospital? Any ideas on how much they will cost? Which ones might be covered? Are the what if's enough to purchase maternity insurance when we aren't even sure we will be able to concieve again? (we do have two beautiful children already)

[sunflower.mama]

I just had a baby - natural childbirth in a hospital - and the bill was over $15K (covered by insurance.) One possible complication was that my placenta almost didn't come out in the 30 mins they like to see it come out, in which case they might have needed a D&C. We didn't get to the point of even discussing it, but it occurs to me that is a potential complication even w/a nat'l uncomplicated birth. Also many of the women on my birth board here were late and very concerned about "risking out" of their planned homebirth with a midwife at 41 or 42 weeks. I guess that depends on who you use but you're sort of stuck if it's that late in the pregnancy.

[shayinme]

Well when I got pregnant with my dd 5 yrs ago we had a high deductible policy that didn't cover pregnancy. So I decided to use the midwives at the freestanding birth center, paid for all my visits and the birth in advance. (want to say it was about 3K) Only thing was I went to 41.5 weeks, water finally breaks, meconium in water, lots of it. My MW left me go 24 hours but labor stalled out and due to the amount of meconium in water she decided I needed to transfer to hospital. After a few interventions, I came a hair away from getting a C-section but had dd vaginally, total time in hospital was 24 hours literally. I left as soon as I could though nursing staff and OB's felt I should stay but my MW gave the green light. That 24 hours was about 6K unexpected, still paying it off a few dollars a month at a time.

I imagine that had anything happened, complications or C-section that bill easily could have exceeded 15-20K. So essentially the cost to have my dd was 9K, out of pocket.

[candycat]

Apparently a miscarriage is not a complication of pregnancy.

I now owe about $9,000. For having a miscarriage. Thank God I didn't end up getting a D&C, that would have cost a lot more.

[Bokonon]

I had severe preeclampsia with DS and delivered at 32 weeks. My 1-week stay and c-section cost my insurance $48,000. His 6-week NICU stay was $200,000. It was my first pregnancy and I was considered low-risk.

I don't know the total of my 3 separate hospitalizations with preeclampsia with DD, but it was over $200,000, not including c-section delivery and her 10-day NICU stay.

A friend of mine had no complications with her first pregnancy, but had contractions and severe bleeding starting at 25 weeks with her second. She has been in and out of the hospital and is scheduled to deliver at 36 weeks if her body allows her to go that long...but I wouldn't be surprised if her complications cost over half a million dollars, even before delivery.

I met a woman yesterday who had twins, and spent 6 weeks on bedrest in the hospital because of placenta previa. She had complete previa so had to have a c-section, but was lucky enough to have the babies go home with her instead of stay in the NICU. I don't know how much all that cost, but I would guess at least a couple of hundred thousand (she didn't have contractions so wasn't on mag. sulfate).