Anybody not carry mat. ins?

[JustJenny]

We have private insurance that would cover a emergency C-section. Which would be the only reason why I will set foot in a hospital for birth. We are self employed so we have to pay ins. ourselves and all of them say a 1 year wait before they cover anything. I don't want to wait 1 year and when I added up the cost of a year's payments they were very very close to what we would pay out of pocket to a midwife. Anyone not carry mat. ins? What about those Maternity Cards? The ones that bargain for you if you need something done in a hospital - are they worth it? I guess I'm asking for some reassurance but any opinons are welcome!

[AbbieB]

We don't have insurance. We are paying for a midwife out of pocket. If anything bad happens and we end up in a hospital we will just figure it out.

[pixiewytch]

We didn't have insurance until the very end. We paid for our midwife visits out of pocket until a month before delivery when my DH's open enrollment. Most midwives/birthing centers offer payment plans that have to be paid off by the end of the pregnancy. They aren't exactly cheap and there were times when we didn't know how we would pay our other monthly bills but we managed to get through it.

[Full Heart]

We are also self employeed and we don't have any insurance. Haven't for years. We had real problems with ours though. I guess if someone likes insurance and it works for them I could see how they would be upset if they didn't have it. But for us life is much easier without it.

We paid more a year for insurance than I did for my mw out of pocket. Which I also used her almost every year (I am expecting #7 and my oldest is 9). Plus then it didn't cover chiro, eye dr, dentist or anything else like that. Like I said we also had tons of trouble with our insurance cos (we had 3 different ones in 6 years) so besides the outrageous amount of money we spent on our insurance they also harrassed us. The money would have been better spent on a medical savings plan or in a regular old savings account.

So are you concerned that you would have to give birth in a hospital and it not be an emergency c/s? If thats the case then I would either start saving like a medical savings account or look at the hospitals close to where you are and find out what their cost is for those without insurance. They usually have payment plans as well.

[JustJenny]

I guess what I'm asking is if anyone didn't carry maternity ins. and had an emergency what did they do? Say like if I had a complication that ended in a m/c mid preg. or had to have a d&C. Just trying to get the pros & cons sorted out in my mind. : I'm not worried about transfer 'cause I know I won't go unless there truly is an emergency and that should be covered by the ins. I already have. I'm usually like AnnieB- I'll deal with it when/if it happens. This is my first go around with it and I just want to make sure I'm not doing anything stupid and taking unecessary risks.

[applejuice]

Originally Posted by JustJenny

We have private insurance that would cover a emergency C-section.

Thirty years ago, that was the only maternity insurance available. That is what I had, and I paid for my homebirths out of pocket. It was nice to know that I had some kind of coverage however just in case.

[Arwyn]

Originally Posted by AbbieB

We don't have insurance. We are paying for a midwife out of pocket. If anything bad happens and we end up in a hospital we will just figure it out.

: Well, the baby will have insurance as of birth, but I don't and won't, not even for emergency cesarean (gotta love a country that leaves its citizens without even the most basic of health insurance...). The odds are very much in my (in all of our!) favor that nothing more than the midwife will be needed, anyway.

[mamaverdi]

I've paid for both births out of pocket. Once with ins but no homebirth coverage at all, and once without ins. And when the baby xfered to hospital at 5 days old....well, no ins then. He eventually qualified by himself for state ins. But that was once he reached $75K in medical bills.

[MommytoTwo]

I think if you dont have mat coverage you can be covered by Medicare? (or Medicaid - I always mix up the names)
Also if you have no coverage a lot of mws and even OBs are willing to work with you.. I have a few friends who did not have coverage.

[Peppamint]

We've paid for our two homebirths out of pocket... and I have no insurance at all (can't afford the premium). Our income qualifies me for maternity care through Hoosier Healthwise but HH only applies to CNMs/OBs at the hospital. In case of transfer, I'd apply for coverage as it will cover anything retroactive to something like 2 months, at least it used to. If we couldn't get the HH, I'd still just take my chances because chance of transfer is so slim anyway and the premiums are certain to hurt.

[Full Heart]

Originally Posted by JustJenny

I guess what I'm asking is if anyone didn't carry maternity ins. and had an emergency what did they do? Say like if I had a complication that ended in a m/c mid preg. or had to have a d&C. Just trying to get the pros & cons sorted out in my mind. : I'm not worried about transfer 'cause I know I won't go unless there truly is an emergency and that should be covered by the ins. I already have. I'm usually like AnnieB- I'll deal with it when/if it happens. This is my first go around with it and I just want to make sure I'm not doing anything stupid and taking unecessary risks.

I went to the ER at 10 weeks for bleeding. We did vaginal and abdominal u/s, urinalysis and culture, blood tests for HCG and CBC. I had a pelvic and all that other good stuff. The hospital has a payment plan for those without insurance. The most expensive part was the u/s because the hospital contracts out. I could have done without some of the cultures (I already know I don't have chlamydia) but when they order the tests they just get everything and I didn't ask to see the paperwork cause I was a total wreck. I could have done everything at a drs office for less so if cost is an issue I would def avoid the hospital unless its really emergent. But if you have complications that aren't emergent a dr will work with you. They usually have much lower rates for cash payers than they charge for insurance cos because there is so much overhead associated with billing. Urgent care is another way to get care for less unless its really emergent or in the middle of the night.

I don't think there are risks with not having insurance. And I don't think its stupid either. A study last year found that you are more likely to file bankruptcy if you have insurance than if you don't. Which makes sense to me cause like I said I spent a boat load of cash on mine and it didn't cover anything (and there were things they said they would cover and ended up not even after appeal after appeal). So for me it was like giving money away.

[JustJenny]

Originally Posted by Full Heart

I could have done everything at a drs office for less so if cost is an issue I would def avoid the hospital unless its really emergent. But if you have complications that aren't emergent a dr will work with you. They usually have much lower rates for cash payers than they charge for insurance cos because there is so much overhead associated with billing. Urgent care is another way to get care for less unless its really emergent or in the middle of the night.

I don't think there are risks with not having insurance. And I don't think its stupid either. A study last year found that you are more likely to file bankruptcy if you have insurance than if you don't. Which makes sense to me cause like I said I spent a boat load of cash on mine and it didn't cover anything (and there were things they said they would cover and ended up not even after appeal after appeal). So for me it was like giving money away.

Thank you Full Heart for those examples. I feel so ignorant about Dr.'s because I never go!! I had no idea some will work with you and have payment plans and wouldn't have thought to ask or just call the GP : Urgent care is a good idea too. That's a facinating bit about bankruptcy. Probably because of what you experienced- they didn't pay crap!

Thanks to everyone for the confidence bolster! Sometimes I just need a little affirmation that my gut instincts are ok, YKWIM? I DO NOT want to throw money away on unnecessary junk. Especially when things will be tight after we move & start a business over again!

[Arwyn]

Originally Posted by MommytoTwo

I think if you dont have mat coverage you can be covered by Medicare? (or Medicaid - I always mix up the names)

My partner makes too much money for me to get state insurance (of any kind - I've tried!), but we're not married, so his company doesn't have to offer me their group insurance... I'm just hosed. And I'm not alone in that - millions and millions of Americans, even children, don't have health insurance, and it's rarely because they choose not to, or aren't taking sufficient advantage of the programs that are out there.

Birth is not what makes me worry about not having insurance, though. The time my partner, before he got a good job with benefits, nearly died from a blood clot that the hospital missed on the first ER trip (in part I believe because they wanted to spare us, unemployed and without insurance, the expense of the tests it eventually took to diagnose it), and the financial effect that has continued to have on us for the last several years; THAT scares me. When one has a new baby is not a good time to be worrying about whether one can afford to go to the doctor to figure out whether one's stomach pain is indigestion or appendicitis, y'know?

Anyway. End of tangential rant. I don't have any insurance, I'm paying the midwife out of pocket, and although having backup insurance might be nice, I'm ok with not having it. I think you'll be just fine, JustJenny.

[JustJenny]

Originally Posted by Arwyn

I think you'll be just fine, JustJenny.

Thanks

[Full Heart]

Originally Posted by JustJenny

Thank you Full Heart for those examples. I feel so ignorant about Dr.'s because I never go!! I had no idea some will work with you and have payment plans and wouldn't have thought to ask or just call the GP : Urgent care is a good idea too. That's a facinating bit about bankruptcy. Probably because of what you experienced- they didn't pay crap!

Thanks to everyone for the confidence bolster! Sometimes I just need a little affirmation that my gut instincts are ok, YKWIM? I DO NOT want to throw money away on unnecessary junk. Especially when things will be tight after we move & start a business over again!

Yeah that was the other thing. Last year for my family of 8 we went to the dr 6 times. Plus my one ER visit.

One of the urgent cares here in phoenix has a program you can sign up for and you can get up to 50% off depending on what you are there for. I don't know if they have them in Tuscon, its NextCare. But we have only used them on weekends when our choice was them or the ER.

You can call around to get rates of things (if non emergent of course). Like my brother broke his arm severly, My mom called around to different hospitals cause he had to be put under in surgery to have it set. She found the cheapest operating room and got all the drs, staff etc that she wanted. Who knew they had price sheets for things like that lol.

If you wanted to read that study it was done by harvard medical school - you could probably google it. I think it was that those filing bankruptcy for medical expenses 75% were insured at the time.

If you are really worried about the cost of an emergency you can set up a savings plan with the money that you would have put into insurance. That way the $ is available anytime you need it, and it gains interest as well.

[springbabes]

You might want to ask the ins. co. what their policy is. When I was pregnant with DD2 we had insurance that didn't include maternity. When I talked to the ins. co. about it they said they would cover any birth complication after $5000 and the baby would automatically be covered at birth. I felt comfortable knowing that it wouldn't bankrupt us if anything went wrong. It also made the decision to have a home birth really easy--a normal hospital birth would have run $4000 and the homebirth was only $800 .

[JustJenny]

Springbabes- Yeah, I think our policy is similar to that. I can't recall the $$ limit but the baby would be covered at birth too. There's like a 2 week grace period for getting the babe on the ins. and he would be covered during that time. Its funny for some reason I'm not worried about the birth. I'm worried about the coverage during pregnancy. I think its because both my SIL's have had lots of m/c's They are covered by their jobs though.

You paid $800 for your homebirth!! Lucky

[mashenka]

I also didn't have insurance. I was getting new insurance and it was $100/month. We'd been trying for a while and hadn't had luck, so I didn't want to be paying $100 for a long time.Of course, I got the insurance policy finalized on one day and found out I was pregnant the next! I WAS a bit nervous at times, particularly since I had a friend who had a preterm labor scare that send her to the hospital for a couple days [$$$$$$$$$$$$]. But I kept telling myself that I was in excellent hands with my midwife, who knew my insurance situation and would try as much as it was safe to keep me away from any hospitals. It all turned out fine! We saved up the money for the homebirth with my husband's flex plan--less painful that way as we never even saw the money!

[Josette Marie]

well we kinda of have insurance ours is a savings account. we put so much in and some in for if we have a medical emergency over 5,000. Our insurance/ savings doesn't cover maternity but if I send it through the company they will haggle with the doctor and the price will go down.

I am paying the midwife out of pocket, but I am still saving money because I don't have as much lab work. I also don't have to worry about leaving the hospital within one day (I will be home). She will do the first PKU so that saves me too.

I think our last birth cost for the ob 1800, the hospital was 2300, the lab work was over 500 dollars.

With the midwife it is about 2600. Plus the cost of a kit and any supplies, extra towels..blah blah

Don't worry, hospitals have payments plans, if indeed you have to transfer.