Hi gals, I'm not sure this is a good place to post or not, but here goes.
It's the usual story, my insurance won't cover my out of hospital midwife assisted birth, because my MW doesn't work with an MD. I have several problems with this position, not the least of which, WTF is wrong with a DO or a naturopathic doctor, or some OTHER doctor besides a MEDICAL doctor?
Anyway, I want to send in a very, ahem, nice letter to my insurance company explaining why I think it's ridiculous that they don't cover out of hospital births by a LICENSED midwife. I'm curious if any of you have any tips or ideas of what I might say. I am planning on including studies that show that planned, out of hospital births attended by a licensed midwife have better outcomes than in hospital births along with a comparison of costs. My MW is $3250. I am going to our hospital today to find out what a typical hospital birth costs, as well as a c-section.
FWIW, I use a very "local" insurance, and our local c-section rates are phenomenally high, most of them are planned, there is a VBAC ban, etc. This insurance company should have a vested interest in getting women to NOT have a c-section, because it could result in them having many, many c-sections that the insurance will have to pay for, unless they opt to give women the choice of having a VBAC at HOME with a licensed MW.
I realize that this is probably a losing battle, but, hey, it's worth a shot. Maybe if enough people sent in letters like this, something would eventually change.
Thanks,
Jenna
It's the usual story, my insurance won't cover my out of hospital midwife assisted birth, because my MW doesn't work with an MD. I have several problems with this position, not the least of which, WTF is wrong with a DO or a naturopathic doctor, or some OTHER doctor besides a MEDICAL doctor?
Anyway, I want to send in a very, ahem, nice letter to my insurance company explaining why I think it's ridiculous that they don't cover out of hospital births by a LICENSED midwife. I'm curious if any of you have any tips or ideas of what I might say. I am planning on including studies that show that planned, out of hospital births attended by a licensed midwife have better outcomes than in hospital births along with a comparison of costs. My MW is $3250. I am going to our hospital today to find out what a typical hospital birth costs, as well as a c-section.
FWIW, I use a very "local" insurance, and our local c-section rates are phenomenally high, most of them are planned, there is a VBAC ban, etc. This insurance company should have a vested interest in getting women to NOT have a c-section, because it could result in them having many, many c-sections that the insurance will have to pay for, unless they opt to give women the choice of having a VBAC at HOME with a licensed MW.
I realize that this is probably a losing battle, but, hey, it's worth a shot. Maybe if enough people sent in letters like this, something would eventually change.
Thanks,
Jenna
