Costs to expect

[kriket]

I have a obgyn appointment soon and I was looking at insurance. We are uninsured and I was wondering if it would be a better idea to get insurance or try to go at it alone. You can look at my chart, It's grim. This is about month 8 of TTC. and I am on CD80. I think i may have PCOS or something similar, it seems to be genetic.

tell me what you think. how much have you spent (if thats not too personal of a question) or how much does insurance cover for things like clomid, or U/S etc..

[RunnerDuck]

Unfortunately insurance doesn't always cover infertility anyway, so even with insurance, you may be going at it alone - but that aside I would be worried about trying to get pregnant and having kids with no insurance so I would get insurance either way.

I don't know what Ohio's rules are for insurance and fertility - some states mandate coverage, some don't. Are you able to get insurance through work or your husband's work?

As for cost that is going to vary with where you live and what treatment you need. Some women are lucky... all they need is clomid (which is pretty cheap) and can get by using OPKs at home. But some women need closer monitoring with the clomid which may include a trigger shot for the ovulation to happen and IUI depending on male factor issues... some require injectables + IUI... some require IVF. Around here a closely monitored clomid cycle with IUI will cost you ~$100 out of pocket ... an injectables + IUI cycle will run you $4000-5000... IVF you're looking at $10k a cycle.

I am lucky that DH's work had infertility under one of their insurance plans as it took us 6 or 7 injectables cycles to get pregnant... so all we had were co-pays and probably spent less than $500 out of pocket...

I am kind of confused by your sig... do you have 2 kids are are you hoping to have 2 kids? If you have 2, did you require any help to get them?

[YummyYarnAddict]

The costs are somewhat regional and can even vary widely within a region depending on what type of practice you go with -- private, hospital based, OB/GYN or RE, etc. Also, insurance may not cover everything -- some don't even cover clomid or ultrasounds -- so depending on your situation, some women pay out of pocket to get pregnant and then go on Medicaid or buy a separate policy for the pregnancy, or, some practices offer a flat rate for prenatal care and delivery. Once you figure out what in/fertility issues you're dealing with, you're in a better position to make a decision.

For example, if you're looking at doing clomid cycles with timed IUIs, those can run you from $1000-4000 per cycle depending on where you are in the country and how much monitoring your doctor wants to do and what type of doctor you see and whether you do two inseminations or one. While $5K could pay for a frozen embryo transfer at another clinic. If you have an idea of where you want to go, you can look at their website to see if they have their prices online (some do) to see if that helps.

[MaddieMay]

We have excellent insurance (thanks to the military), but I have been sent a few statements where I saw what was billed. Of course, insurance pays a negotiated rate-sometimes half of what was actually charged.

My first laparoscopy at an outpatient center was around $6000.

A semen analysis ran $150 at a local hospital.

I think 5 days of Clomid runs around $50.

Like I said, our insurance picks up 100% of anything that is used to diagnose, but treatments themselves (like IVF) are not covered.

[cristeen]

We have an HMO (Kaiser) plan that covers 50% of fertility treatments.

So that means that when I go in for my day 12 U/S, I pay $105. If the follies aren't ready and I have to come back on day 14, I pay another $105. This last cycle I was in the office 3 times for $105 each time.

My prescriptions are about $35/month for Clomid and HCG, because I have RX coverage. But that coverage did not extend to the Menopure I had to buy this month which all by itself was $200.

Luckily I'm covered for all the tests that I need, so I don't get charged for labs, procedures, analyses, etc.

So, if reproductive coverage is available to you, look into it. See how much it's going to cost. Find out if there's a deductible on it (I have a $3K deductible, so if we have to go as far as IVF, it would be covered).

But while you're looking into that, I would also look into alternatives like accupuncture. Many women find it to be effective, and it is considerably cheaper.

[kriket]

runnerduck : I have no children, my siggy is my social commentary about population control DH and I work for the same company, It is very small, there are 4 in my office and maybe 7 in his store. So we have no coverage from work. I have thought about what we are going to do for insurance for the children. I don't want to be on government assistance, but we more then qualify. We have an interesting way that we do our finances. We are very minimalistic. I really hope that I wouldn't need more advanced treatments. I would have to re-evaluate if we got to IVF or other high level treatment.

Christeen: I have thought about acupuncture or maybe even talking to a friend who does tarot. I know that no amount of tarot will make me ovulate, but it may put my mind at ease.

thanks ladies. It's a lot to think about right now. DH and I are starting to talk about adopting first. That a big leap for us, I feel like there is a rite of passage with pregnancy and child birth that I would like to experience. Thanks for all of your input! back to the baby dance