Hi there...i have been enjoying for blog for a few months now and appreciate all the info! I was wondering if you have any advice for moving out of state while pregnant and how that will affect my health insurance? will no insurance plans accept me because they will consider pregnancy a 'pre-existing' condition? I have individual insurance i pay for each month and am planning to purchase the same from a different insurance company (mine is not available in the other state) when we move in a couple of months.
What are my options? I appreciate any advice!! Thank you! :-)

I'm among the uninsured and pregnant...14 weeks along now. While I'm extremely excited and can't wait to be a mom...this has been a hell of a hard road so far. I was told by workers at the financing office at the hospital that it works like this:

You're pregnant and uninsured. Ok, you get a 20% discount. You have to have 50% of the expected hospital costs paid by the 8th month. You also have to pay for doctor visits out of pocket, those aren't included in the monthly fees. A vaginal delivery was expected to cost around $8,800. You have to pay the doctor that is to deliver you in full by the 6th month (and remember now...most people don't even find out they're pregnant until at LEAST the 2nd month!) and those were around $3,000.

After EVERYTHING, I figured we'd end up paying over $1200. per month in pregnancy-related bills. Working my retail sales position, I didn't come close to making enough to pay that PLUS the doctor visits. I applied for Medicaid in SC before quitting my job and did not qualify. I had to finally make the decision to quit my job and live on just his income until the baby is born.

Here's hoping that Medicaid will approve us now that we have just one income... and that the US will come up with something for people like us...

"OH MY GOD!" I'm absolutely stunned! Why is it then that America is so bloody set against a new health care plan???????? I honestly do not understand the resistance, it is absolutely not ok that your people should have to deal with expenses for your health!
I too am pregnant, just a few weeks and my total cost for everything will be $0.00! I think it is so sad that a country the size of yours cannot get over selfish thinking and instead think about helping each other. It is worth the taxes! No matter what anyone says about the Canadian health care system it is fantastic and we ALL get to live worry free lives when it comes to our health, something every American also deserves.
I hope change will come for all of you.

Wow! Your country really sucks. (no offence!:) ) I live in NZ and EVERYTHING is FREE! I get to chose my lead maternity carer and can call her whenever I want and if I have to have a cesarian and other hospital care that's free too. Plus I get five weeks of post partum care free and the Plunket Society will look after me and my baby after that for FREE too. And no insurance neccessary. Not that I'm gloating but you guys over there really should listen to Barak Obama.
(love your blog by the way)

Wow, that's insane. So incredibly grateful to live in Canada. I had unassisted births for my last 2 kids, so the cost wouldn't have mattered, but my oldest was a coerced unnecesarean & I was in the hospital for 5 days after, plus I had complications. Dread to think how much that would've been in the US

Just want to second the recommendation for an HSA. My husband and I own a small business in TX and we pay ~$1000 / 3 months (or ~$333/ mth). We also get to "save" over $5K tax free each year which is nice come tax time (and for medical expenses). We get our insurance through Golden Rule (its a united healthcare company).

You may also want to check the Freelancers Union : http://www.freelancersunion.org/
Seems like the also use Golden Rule but you may get a better rate through them.

But please keep us posted on what you decide - we would totally switch to a better / different insurance plan if there was such a thing!

With our twins, our total bill wound up being $200,000. That includes the OB prenatal care, the insanely expensive meds my OB put me on, numerous ultrasounds, the c-section, the month they spent in the NICU, my 4 days in the hospital, the follow-up eye exam for the babies, etc. Luckily, my husband was active duty at the time, so we paid $12 (on a bill for which we weren't responsible, but with two tiny babies at home, I wasn't up for arguing with them), $30 for the prescription (which was originally over $300 for TEN PILLS) and $72 for a pump rental. Tricare covered 100%.

With my last pregnancy, we planned a homebirth and saw a midwife. We paid $2500 out of pocket and that was it.

Since my husband left the military, we've had to deal with other insurance companies and oy vey, it's awful. Tricare is bad (they make it SO freaking frustrating), but they usually pay in the end. Now, even when our insurance covers something, we still pay an insane amount.

I know people who really want to leave the military, but won't because of the insurance. I know a few who have kids with disabilities and just having to pay for the necessary treatments would be more money then they could make in a year. In the military, 100% is covered. Granted, you may spend hours or even days calling to argue, but eventually, it'll be covered.

The US health care system is broken. I live in the UK and my wife and I are expecting our first child in the next month. Our total up front costs are as follows:

Hospital: £0
Insurance: £0

In fact the govenment gives US money to make sure that the child is healthy and provided for. Admittedly this is paid for through taxes, but it's not a huge amount and I would rather know that there was someone there to pick me up when I fall down than not.

America needs to get off its high horse about "socialism" and realise that if government provided medical care is what they call socialism then they already live in a socialised nation -- after all, what are schools, the fire service, the military, libraries?

Any nation which cannot provide health care for the weakest in its society is not a civilised nation.

My husband is self-employed and we pay for private BCBS of Illinois. It is $310/month for a family of 4 with a $3500 copay. However, when we first got the policy 3 years ago, it was only $250/mo. for our fam of 4. Turning 30 really raised our rates. I've heard some states are better than other re: what you'll pay for private insurance. You can also hire a person who will help you find a good policy (can't remember the term, but saw an article in Money mag about this).

We're having the same issue with health insurance. If we were making a little less we would qualify for California's Healthy Family program for the new baby. This would be $30 a month, no coinsurance, and a low deductible. $1000 a month seems extremely high for a family of 3 though.
I knew somebody who worked for ehealthinsurance.com and have been using it to compare rates. Assuming you, Jane, and Monkey are not terribly older than us it seems you can get a plan for $500 or less with a $2500 deductible and no coinsurance through UnitedHealthOne plan 100. I hope you find something that is affordable and covers everything you need. <3

My prayers to you and your family, My little one is due to arrive 4/10/10 wish my luck!!! this is my first little one

This pisses me off. Children's healthcare is just as backwards as maternity for self-employed and/or hard working people.

http://www.texaschildrenshealthplan.org/visitors/C...

If we qualified for the above, we wouldn't have to pay more than $50 per year with $3 to $10 co-pays! SERIOUSLY!? We don't qualify for this.

If Jane and I made less, we would have had all of our maternity bills paid for us, much of our food paid for us, living expenses, health insurance for us and Monkey, and so on. Life would be easy. Just have a little part-time job to meet the requirements and live the good life off of the State and Government. Oh wait a second, I think millions of people have already figured this out.

What a messed up system - and the further I dive into it - the more I see how messed up it is.

They are rewarding people for not doing anything - and those who are self employed putting in crazy hours a week to make a living, they say too bad - you don't meet the requirements.

Don't get me wrong, I KNOW that there a lot of families and people out there who need help from state/Gov't and do not take advantage of the system - but sadly, there are SO many people that do. I had a conversation about this with a few nurses while Jane and I were at the hospital waiting for Monkey to arrive. They are also furious about all the people they see taking advantage of the system - everyday they see many people who play the State/Gov't game.

I'm not looking for handouts, never have, never will, but just a break here and there to make things a little easier. And it just feels like a knife is stabbed in your back when you see people jacking the system.

Urrrgghhh.

Thanks for the comments guys - I'm searching around and *WHEN* I figure out the solution here - I will let everyone know. Keep the comments coming - one small tip or advice here can save us - and a lot of others who are in the same position a lot of money.

I have had my children on independent policies through Blue Cross Blue Shield of IL. They were a little over a hundred dollars a month for a PPO with great coverage and a low deductible. I'm not sure about Texas BCBS but you could call them directly, or search for an insurance broker in your area that may be able to get you a better deal.

We just had our baby three weeks ago, and I think our total billed amount is going to be on the order of $15,000 here in Colorado. We were relatively complication-free, but not completely. I feel very fortunate that I have good insurance, so our out of pocket amount will be much less.

When looking at insurance, you might look at a high deductible health plan. This is a special category of health plans that are offered by insurance companies. Specifically, your insurance company pays nothing until you hit your high deductible, and then they start paying a high percentage (called coinsurance). Generally, these plans also come with an annual max out-of-pocket and some even come with all preventative health care (like well baby checks) for no cost. The premiums are also generally lower.

An example might be helpful - for my family (2 adults, 1 newborn), each year we pay the first $2400 of medical expenses ourselves. After that, our insurance company pays 90%. Our maximum out of pocket for the year is $4200, including that $2400. All of our well baby care and one physical per year per adult is paid at 100% the entire year. The high deductible can be intimidating, but we more than make up for it in lower premiums and in years when we don't get to $2400, we save even more. Additionally, a HDHP qualifies you to start a tax-free HSA. Contributions to it can be deducted from your federal income, and the account value can be invested and rolled over year to year. The only restriction is that you have to use it for healthcare costs, but premiums count. The challenge is you have to have enough reserve cash to cover that high deductible, because you could, as happened to me this year, need an $1800 ER visit on the second day of the year.

I didn't have health insurance when I got pregnant and was really glad I got insured under my employer's plan. My husband said we would be fine without and "what's the worse that can happen". Well bad things did happen. I had an emergency c-section at 33 weeks and my baby stayed in the NICU for 2.5 weeks. My final bill was around $160,000! The NICU experience and the worrying was already so terrible, if I would have had to worry about the bill on top of that... I can't even imagine. I have to pay $500 for me and my baby and will have to pay $900 if we decide to also add my husband, but after my experience, I will gladly pay it (although, I would be happy to pay less! I agree, it's insane!).

OMG. That's all I can say. Over $300 to add Monkey? Wow.
I was uninsured most of my life. My parents didn't have jobs that offered coverage, and we couldn't afford private insurance. We were lucky that we never really had medical costs aside from the standard doctor visits kids need. I was married last year at age 27 and my husband has great coverage through this employer. It's the first time I have ever had insurance. We are lucky and blessed, but I know the feeling of worry and stress and not knowing what you are going to do if you get sick. I hope that you are able to find a policy with someone else that is more affordable. Insurance companies are all about the money. They don't care about the people.

Goodness! It's frightening the state of health insurance now. We have really good health insurance and we still ended up paying over $1,000 out of pocket for doctor copays, hospital copays, everything they could think of copays... I can't imagine doing it without insurance. I agree with the previous commenters about checking into a state run helath insurance for Monkey. Good luck!

Prayers for your family member and baby. I can't imagine having a baby in NICU!

that's incredible... yikes. i was grumbling about paying over $3000 out of pocket for my homebirth midwives, plus buy a bunch of my own supplies when my health insurance wouldn't cover homebirth - but i can see how for someone who doesn't have maternity coverage it could seem quite affordable! and given the large difference in my quality of life and my newborn's after a home birth as compared to our first which was a hospital birth, i think the midwives were worth every penny. too bad my insurance company doesn't see it that way - they could be saving big bucks.

Sometimes the local Chamber will have a co-op of sorts with small businesses where they all go together to get health coverage at reduced rates. You may check into that.

@De ... No, never heard of Chip but will check out the site right now. Thanks for the link!

@IzzyMom ... Whoa! Now $133 a month is a LOT better. No idea if our state has a program like that. I wouldn't have the slightest clue on how to find out - who is it though in your state?

@Ella ... Thank you so much, I appreciate that.

@Christina ... Heck yeah we are! Wow, BCBS is typically really expensive. Makes me feel good that I'll find something this week. An emergency c-section and baby in NICU for 8 days, wow. Dare I ask how much that cost?

I just had to post on this topic! I've been informed that the cost to add my soon-to-be-monkey will be... $620 per month! Almost three times my own cost (I'm under 30 and in perfect health), complication free pregnancy. I'm a salaried employee, had I not been able to negotiate with my employer to cover this cost instead of an annual raise... We'd be in big trouble. Basically we'd have cancelled our own coverage so we could afford to cover our daughter. Sadly, since finding this out we've come to find a number of ppl are making that choice. We make an ok living... But heck $1k a month is rly out of the question for us. How do ppl do it??

Real quick... @Ella - OK, got a page up for everyone. It's a quick fix until we figure something out something better. :) It's linked to the top of this site called, "The Baby Page".

Wow. You're paying way too much. My husband and I are both self-employed and we have BCBS. I don't know the exact number (he pays the bill), but I do know it's way less than that, and we are now a family of 4. We have a high deductible, maybe that's the difference. And like you, we did not have maternity insurance. I had an emergency c-section and baby in NICU for 8 days.

So, so sorry to hear about your family member and her baby. I will be sending lots of prayers her way.

On a lighter note, I think a congrats page is a great idea. I think it would help this blog to feel even more like a community, and to help all of us busy people keep track of who's had a baby when.

We were paying the same for our family on a group plan and when they raised premiums again, we took the kids off and put them on the state children's insurance program. It's a hundred times better than private health insurance in terms of coverage. Because of our income, we pay full price, which is $133 per child a month, but it's still much more affordable. Does your state have program like that?

Have you looked into CHIP? http://www.cms.hhs.gov/home/chip.asp

When I was self-employed and buying my own insurance, I went with Kaiser as a pretty low-cost provider. I don't think they're in Texas, but you might have another large HMO. Generally an HMO will be less expensive than a PPO plan, though it will be more restrictive. If you're healthy though, it should suffice.

Good luck! The insurance mess sucks.