Discouraged: Want a Baby but Insurance Doesn't Cover Maternity

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Liz_Smith

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Well, it does. After a point. Read on for more info…

My husband and I are really looking forward to having a family. Like, we want SO many babies, right. now. However, we are coming up against an obstacle that I’m surprised to find so few people talking about: the high price of maternity/delivery health care.

We are currently covered under my employer’s insurance. A bit of an emergency got us on it in the first place (so I didn’t have time to shop around) and we can’t change it until November unless we have a “life event”… and for some reason pregnancy doesn’t count. But birth does. And the thousands of dollars of care we receive - before we are even allowed to change coverage - would be due 36 days after the baby is born. (I guess one of us could just drop everything and get a different job… not.) :nope:

This insurance basically will not cover anything maternity-related under $13,000, and from my research/calling around so far, the estimated cost of a healthy pregnancy and delivery would be over $5,000. I know emergencies happen, but this is our starting cost for a best-case-scenario.The only debt we have is student loans, but the cost of pregnancy/delivery alone would wipe out our baby savings + emergency fund. (I’ll just make onesies out of my husband’s old socks, I guess…) Plus, I am the temporary earner-of-our-main-income, so we would have to set aside enough for me to take at least a month off… (I think that’s all we could afford)

I understand that having a family is not “cheap,” and I could go on and on about how little we spend, how I save money like a Mammon-loving squirrel with OCD, how we attack our student debt, how we will save more by staying in our cheap one-room apartment even with the baby, how we’re both from out of state and don’t really know anyone who can help give us safe and affordable childcare, or any advice on “stuff like this”…

But I won’t. 🤷 That’s not what brought me here today. 😉

For all the different angles you could take my post, (religious, psychological, moral, economical, political…) what I’m ultimately saying is: I’m deeply discouraged and I would just like some comfort and advice. :sad_yes: (pretty please?)

I’m usually pretty logical and level-headed, but when I think about all the obstacles we have faced (I had some reproductive health-related issues earlier in our marriage) and are currently facing when it comes to having our family, I just want to cry.

Rant alert: I have been contacting pregnancy centers / birth centers in my area, but so far, I’m not getting much good news: they pretty much all have to just go through my insurance. I even asked one straight out if we could take out a loan to pay for their services… Where do people with unplanned pregnancies go? WHY are abortions so inexpensive (they’re one of about eight things 100% covered by our insurance) but if I don’t want to kill the baby, it’s prohibitively expensive just to give birth? What about my “choice” to have a child?? :mad: (end rant)

(Sigh)

Maybe I’m being ridiculous, burt this insurance thing just feels so wrong to me, it seems like we should have better care for mothers and babies, or just other options. I can’t get over how much support I would receive for terminating a pregnancy (not just culturally, but financially) and how little support I can find to help ease the financial strain before the baby is even born.

I would be more than happy to pay $800-$2000 to receive pregnancy/delivery care at some pro-life clinic, and then volunteer there after work for 6 months or something. (Or volunteer my husband, haha) I strongly considered doing a home birth, but it was not advisable for my first. I’m currently trying to figure out what care/tests/etc. I can maybe do without to help reduce the cost: skip the epidural, skip the extra whatever test, and that one…

Like I said: I’m just deeply discouraged. I feel like we are in this alone, and I could just really use some comfort and advice. And prayers! :gopray:

I don’t really want to broadcast where we live, but I will say we’re in the lower Tri State area. Philadelphia is under two hours away, if you know anything in that area.

Thank you in advance for any prayers and advice, I really appreciate it.

God bless,
-Lizzie
 
It is a tragic day when society fosters death and discourages life.

Have you considered a midwife? Probably more like $2000.

Prayers to you and your husband. God bless.
 
oldrover said:
It is a tragic day when society fosters death and discourages life.

Have you considered a midwife? Probably more like $2000.

Prayers to you and your husband. God bless.
Click to expand...
Yes, you’re right. But as far as I understand it, having a midwife is not an all-inclusive cost. Anyone can hire a midwife and then have them there for birth at a hospital (administration permitting) or a birth center, or home. Unfortunately, as nice as midwives are, they aren’t the whole story. (Happy to be corrected on this, though!)

A home birth without complications could land us in the $2-$3000 range. I actually had my heart set on a home birth, but with my health and family history it would just not be a good idea for our first. However, now that I think about it, I never asked my OB that question directly… hmm maybe should give her a call. 😉

There is still the prenatal care costs as well. Ultrasounds, glucose test, bloodwork… I forgot to mention in my original post, but all my ultrasounds/labwork are NOT included in the $5000 starting-point estimate… 😦

Thank you for your prayers!!
 
Allegra said:
Can you get a supplemental insurance plan?
Click to expand...
That’s what I’m trying to figure out. I was told you cannot be under two insurance policies at the same time, but I wonder if there’s something that’s LIKE insurance, but doesn’t violate the two-policy law?

Any insurance agents out there? 👋

Or a “maternity scholarship”??
 
Liz_Smith said:
That’s what I’m trying to figure out. I was told you cannot be under two insurance policies at the same time, but I wonder if there’s something that’s LIKE insurance, but doesn’t violate the two-policy law?

Any insurance agents out there? 👋

Or a “maternity scholarship”??
Click to expand...
“Supplemental insurance” is the term you’re looking for. It’s a policy that’s meant to be secondary and covers what the primary insurance doesn’t cover.
 
DarkLight said:
“Supplemental insurance” is the term you’re looking for. It’s a policy that’s meant to be secondary and covers what the primary insurance doesn’t cover.
Click to expand...
Awesome. Thank you!

Do you know anything specific about it? Can I only get supplemental insurance during Open Enrollment?

I can start googling on my own, but just thought I’d ask.
 
Liz_Smith said:
Awesome. Thank you!

Do you know anything specific about it? Can I only get supplemental insurance during Open Enrollment?

I can start googling on my own, but just thought I’d ask.
Click to expand...
You can likely get it on your own. The thing is it’s not typically subsidized in any way, either by your company or by Obamacare.

Another option might be to investigate whether your employer’s policy is obamacare compliant. If not, you can opt out and purchase a (possibly subsidized) plan off the marketplace. I believe obamacare requires maternity coverage to be included.
 
You can see if your employer has a supplementary insurance option, but I’ve mostly heard of people purchasing it directly from the company or through a club or organization. Does your employer offer any better primary plans that maybe you could switch to at open enrollment? If they have other plans, it’s been my experience that you can sometimes increase your plan to a more expensive plan midyear, but you can’t decrease it.
 
Liz_Smith said:
Well, it does. After a point. Read on for more info…

My husband and I are really looking forward to having a family. Like, we want SO many babies, right. now. However, we are coming up against an obstacle that I’m surprised to find so few people talking about: the high price of maternity/delivery health care.

We are currently covered under my employer’s insurance. A bit of an emergency got us on it in the first place (so I didn’t have time to shop around) and we can’t change it until November unless we have a “life event”… and for some reason pregnancy doesn’t count. But birth does. And the thousands of dollars of care we receive - before we are even allowed to change coverage - would be due 36 days after the baby is born. (I guess one of us could just drop everything and get a different job… not.) :nope:

This insurance basically will not cover anything maternity-related under $13,000, and from my research/calling around so far, the estimated cost of a healthy pregnancy and delivery would be over $5,000. I know emergencies happen, but this is our starting cost for a best-case-scenario.The only debt we have is student loans, but the cost of pregnancy/delivery alone would wipe out our baby savings + emergency fund. (I’ll just make onesies out of my husband’s old socks, I guess…) Plus, I am the temporary earner-of-our-main-income, so we would have to set aside enough for me to take at least a month off… (I think that’s all we could afford)

I understand that having a family is not “cheap,” and I could go on and on about how little we spend, how I save money like a Mammon-loving squirrel with OCD, how we attack our student debt, how we will save more by staying in our cheap one-room apartment even with the baby, how we’re both from out of state and don’t really know anyone who can help give us safe and affordable childcare, or any advice on “stuff like this”…

But I won’t. 🤷 That’s not what brought me here today. 😉

For all the different angles you could take my post, (religious, psychological, moral, economical, political…) what I’m ultimately saying is: I’m deeply discouraged and I would just like some comfort and advice. :sad_yes: (pretty please?)

I’m usually pretty logical and level-headed, but when I think about all the obstacles we have faced (I had some reproductive health-related issues earlier in our marriage) and are currently facing when it comes to having our family, I just want to cry.

Rant alert: I have been contacting pregnancy centers / birth centers in my area, but so far, I’m not getting much good news: they pretty much all have to just go through my insurance. I even asked one straight out if we could take out a loan to pay for their services… Where do people with unplanned pregnancies go? WHY are abortions so inexpensive (they’re one of about eight things 100% covered by our insurance) but if I don’t want to kill the baby, it’s prohibitively expensive just to give birth? What about my “choice” to have a child?? :mad: (end rant)

(Sigh)

Maybe I’m being ridiculous, burt this insurance thing just feels so wrong to me, it seems like we should have better care for mothers and babies, or just other options. I can’t get over how much support I would receive for terminating a pregnancy (not just culturally, but financially) and how little support I can find to help ease the financial strain before the baby is even born.

I would be more than happy to pay $800-$2000 to receive pregnancy/delivery care at some pro-life clinic, and then volunteer there after work for 6 months or something. (Or volunteer my husband, haha) I strongly considered doing a home birth, but it was not advisable for my first. I’m currently trying to figure out what care/tests/etc. I can maybe do without to help reduce the cost: skip the epidural, skip the extra whatever test, and that one…

Like I said: I’m just deeply discouraged. I feel like we are in this alone, and I could just really use some comfort and advice. And prayers! :gopray:

I don’t really want to broadcast where we live, but I will say we’re in the lower Tri State area. Philadelphia is under two hours away, if you know anything in that area.

Thank you in advance for any prayers and advice, I really appreciate it.

God bless,
-Lizzie
Click to expand...
If you’re not pregnant now, just hold tight until November and fix things then.

Also, have you looked into the possibility of Medicaid coverage? Medicaid currently pays for 45% of births in the US, so there’s a very good chance that you fall under their terms of eligibility. (There are special more generous terms for pregnancy than normally.)

“The percent of births paid for by Medicaid varied widely from a high of nearly 70 percent in Louisiana to below 30 percent in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, the study found”

khn.org/news/nearly-half-of-u-s-births-are-covered-by-medicaid-study-finds/
 
Liz_Smith said:
That’s what I’m trying to figure out. I was told you cannot be under two insurance policies at the same time, but I wonder if there’s something that’s LIKE insurance, but doesn’t violate the two-policy law?

Any insurance agents out there? 👋

Or a “maternity scholarship”??
Click to expand...
I don’t think that’s quite right, because when I fill out medical forms, they often ask whether there’s another insurance company involved.
 
Liz_Smith said:
Yes, you’re right. But as far as I understand it, having a midwife is not an all-inclusive cost. Anyone can hire a midwife and then have them there for birth at a hospital (administration permitting) or a birth center, or home. Unfortunately, as nice as midwives are, they aren’t the whole story. (Happy to be corrected on this, though!)
Click to expand...
Although I’m in Massachusetts, here you can hire a home-based midwife for all prenatal care and delivery. You can shop around for someone you feel comfortable with and can afford and then pay in installments. It’s an all-inclusive cost. These are women who have delivered lots and lots of babies and it is very safe for low-risk births (i.e., healthy women having an uncomplicated pregnancy). I interviewed a few of them for doula services with my second baby, and was very impressed (although I ended up going with a hospital-based midwife and using our insurance.)
 
Just as a heads up–homebirth midwives tend not to have the sort of education and training that hospital midwives have. Hospital midwives in the US are RNs with a specialization in midwifery, whereas homebirth midwives usually do not have the educational background that would allow them to work in a hospital, because they’re usually not nurses.

Also, in the case of an emergency transfer to the hospital, the family faces both the initial homebirth/birth center expenses, and then the hospital expenses. Transfers are not uncommon. For example, Jessa Duggar Seewald delivered her son at home and then was rushed to the hospital because she was hemorrhaging–she even had to have a blood transfusion.

people.com/article/jessa-duggar-seewald-reveals-difficult-labor-emergency-hospital-visit

Likewise, Jill Duggar Dillard was planning to do a homebirth, too, but she wound up with an emergency c-section for a breech birth.

usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/jill-duggars-emergency-c-section-documented-on-19-kids-and-counting-201565
 
You can be covered under two policies … for example if both you and your husband have coverage at work … one would be primary and one secondary - that’s why they ask if there is other coverage or not - so they can coordinate coverage … and - not sure if this is national or not … but in my state - the “Primary” policy - when there are two - is determined by the birthdays of the two primary insured … my birthday is in February - my spouses was in November … which made my insurance primary for our family coverage - even if the spouses plan provided better coverage.

Why are you the primary wage earner and not your husband? And why in that case would you be in a hurry to begin a family? Is that going to change? Is there a chance that he can get employment with insurance? When will his earnings increase?

I hope your student loans are proportional to the increased earnings your degrees warrant - if not they will be with you much longer than will be pleasant. Sadly, many people owe student loans for education that does not provide a monetary break even point - ever :rolleyes:

As another poster said - if you need to change insurance to gain better coverage - then wait until you can make that change - or until you have saved more before starting your family.

And you mention health issues with yourself several times … if you are the primary wage earner and also have health issues … perhaps this is not the time to begin a family …

That said - I firmly believe that babies are blessings … and I am very glad we did not wait until we could “afford” them … we learned that you can do with much less - and babies and little kids don’t really need all the “stuff” people seem to think are necessary today … Maybe we had faith - maybe we just did not know better …

Keep working and saving and praying - … I am sure you will have a beautiful family when the time is right - Blessings
 
If I were you I wouldn’t buy a supplemental insurance coverage. I would just wait until November 1, which is less than 74 days away (less than 2.5 months), change insurance plans at that time…and then get pregnant.
 
Liz_Smith said:
However, we are coming up against an obstacle that I’m surprised to find so few people talking about: the high price of maternity/delivery health care.
Click to expand...
I have been talking for quite a long time (particularly on CAF) about the obscenely high cost of delivery. So, obviously, I agree with you - it’s the PRO-LIFE issue nobody wants to talk about. I think it’s just wrong - wrong on so many levels - that abortions cost $300-$400, and people talk about how much $$ money PP makes on what are essentially “low-cost” procedures – yet, a standard delivery costs upwards of $10-$15,000 and nobody wants to talk about what can be done to make childbirth more affordable. That said, AFAIC, this is the next phase of the PRO-LIFE movement - not needing to take out a second mortgage or/and buy supplement insurance (really?) for choosing life. No. You shouldn’t have to buy supplement insurance to choose life.
 
Liz_Smith said:
Rant alert: I have been contacting pregnancy centers / birth centers in my area, but so far, I’m not getting much good news: they pretty much all have to just go through my insurance. I even asked one straight out if we could take out a loan to pay for their services… Where do people with unplanned pregnancies go? WHY are abortions so inexpensive (they’re one of about eight things 100% covered by our insurance) but if I don’t want to kill the baby, it’s prohibitively expensive just to give birth? What about my “choice” to have a child?? :mad: (end rant)

(Sigh)

Maybe I’m being ridiculous,
Click to expand...
You are NOT being ridiculous. I absolutely agree with you. Once the whole “pro-life” SCOTUS nominee thing has run its course, I certainly hope that affordable childbirth gets its day in the PRO-LIFE agenda - the subject is long overdue, pun intended. Please remember you’re not alone with the topsy-turvy non-pro-life insurance policies in our country. Prayers to you and your family.
 
I’m not sure where you are from, but I’m the director of a crisis pregnancy centers and I know three Catholic OBs who would very likely deliver for free/reduced rate (though you’d still need to pay hospital). PM me if you’re in the Midwest. Otherwise, call local pregnancy centers and see if they have a doc on staff (if they have an ultrasound machine, they will have a doc).
 
Hospitals have payment plans. Many also have means tested payments (you pay less if you have less or no income, up to some cutoff).

I don’t know where the myth that you can’t make payments comes from, I have yet to find an American hospital or clinic that didn’t take payments for large bills (anything over 500).

And even then, if you can’t pay, they just mail you a bill and discharge you.

Second the medicaid tip. Pregnancy medicaid sometimes is even retroactive, covering prenatal care after the birth. It all varies by the state you’re in though.
 
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