Today I added the last few bills that have come in on the cost to have a baby without maternity insurance page.   Believe it or not, we’re still waiting to hear back from Quest Diagnostics on Jane’s February visit.  But as you can imagine, I’m not going to call and remind them, “hey, don’t forget that you still need to send us that bill we talked to you about in February!”

So what’s the final grand total? A whopping $10,529.09.  Urgh.  But you know what?  We have a healthy baby boy who did not have any complications and a Mommy who did a great job delivering Monkey who also didn’t have any complications.  And for that we are truly blessed and thankful beyond words.  So although I can keep beating that horse to death, I’m going to let it go.  What’s done is done and what’s paid is paid – and besides, our Monkey is worth billions of times that to us!

I hope that page has helped others make important decisions when it comes planning on having a baby without maternity insurance.  That number is the LOWEST we could get it.  We saved a LOT not paying full price for anything.  I’d say it would have been more like $25,000.00 or more if we were not able to pay upfront and work out cash discounts with everyone.

So what’s done is done and I’ve moved onto the next battle…

Health Insurance For Baby Monkey

Oh My God.  Now I’m not someone who really watches the news, but I can’t help see the buzz and craziness going on in the healthcare industry.  Now I’m going to leave that subject alone as I’m sure many of you share the same thoughts as I do on this one.

So we have 30 days to add Monkey to our health insurance and I called them up and find out how much it would cost to add Monkey to the policy.

Are you ready for this?

$310.00 PER MONTH

WHAT!?

Granted, Jane and I are self employed and we pay for our own health insurance (hence why we did not have maternity insurance).  So we have to pay out of our pockets for health coverage.

Just for health insurance alone between the three of us, that’s over $1,000 per month.  Now I’m adding Monkey on the policy tomorrow just to buy a little time.  I’m looking at other companies and other plans within the company I’m currently with.  I was told about a plan where his would be $220 per month, but there was a lot to it and I asked them to email me info on it.  So over the next week or so I’ll be figuring out what to do.

Paying $1,000 a month for health insurance when you are a young healthy couple is INSANE.  No wonder why there are millions of people in the US who do not have health insurance – especially if they are self employed.  And to be honest, now that Monkey is here and how crazy the economy is, there is no way we’re going to pay that.  That’s $12,000 per year for a healthy couple and baby.  What in the heck is it going to cost us when we’re 60???

Again, there is no way in heck we’re going to pay that – but I needed to get Monkey on the insurance so he is covered since the 30 day window is coming up fast.  So I’ll begin the search for a new insurance – if anyone knows of something we could join being self employed in Texas that would lower our costs – like being in some group or something, please, please let us know here or via email.

There’s got to be something available out there that I’ve never heard about, right?  I can tell you that there is NOTHING – ZERO if you are self-employed and have no maternity insurance and earn a little over the poverty level.  No one will help you and there are no organizations set up to help people who are self-employed and find themselves with a bun in the oven.  I’m really hoping that we will not face the same battle trying to find affordable health insurance.

If so, then my feelings for entrepreneurism, self-employment, small business etc. in this country will drastically change.  Small business used to fuel this country.  It used to be the way to go.  It used to provide you more freedom.  But between all of the above roadblocks, no help, and getting stuck with more taxes than ever before, I fear a grim future.  I’ll always do my best to reframe from anything to do with politics or putting our Nations systems, plans, etc. down.  That’s not what this blog is for.

However, Jane and I were very fortunate to be able to make it though this – and not end up with tens of thousands of dollars in debt owed to doctors and hospitals.  Sadly, there are hundreds, even thousands of people who aren’t so lucky – and it’s those people who I’m worried about because there’s just nothing available for them.

If you have any ideas or places for me to contact about health insurance for the self employed, please comment below for us and for any of our readers who are in – or find themselves in this crazy situation.

Thanks.

P.S… Because life has become so busy (for obvious reasons) Jane and I very much want to keep up with our readers and be among the first to congratulate you when you have your baby.  We talked about this the other day – that it’s nearly impossible for us to know who’s due when, and who has had their baby.  We want to hear your stories!  We want to give you a BIG congrats as I’m sure many others do as well.  I’ve been trying to think of a way that would work for everyone and I think I have an idea that may work.  If I create a page for you guys to post to let Jane and I and everyone else know when you’ve had your baby and a link to your blog post if you have one and/or a place for you to share your story, would you guys like that, use that, and read it?  UPDATE: I just created the page – linked at the top our our site called, “The Baby Page“.

P.P.S… Please send good vibes/good energy/prayers towards my family member. She had to have an emergency c-section yesterday at 29.5 weeks due to massive and dangerous complications.  Baby is in the NICU and of course hooked up to everything you can think of and doing OK.  Mom is recovering.

Related posts:

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On Twitter the other day I asked people’s opinions about whether or not I should bring my own unopened bottle of Ibuprofen and stool softeners.  (Ibuprofen for any after birth pain and stool softeners to make things come out more easily in case there is tearing involved after labor and delivery.)

Many people told me not to worry about it.  ”That’s what insurance is for”, they said.  Oh, I only wish it were that easy!

After I explained that we are maternity insurance-less (see how much having a baby costs without it here), and the fact that I’ve heard that just one pill can cost between $25-$50, I wanted to make sure that I was prepared.  After all, who wants to spend more money than they have to, right?

I put in a call to the hospital that I will be delivering baby T. at three days ago.  You can imagine how surprised I was when they called me back today; I had totally forgotten about it.

The financial counselor, or whatever her official title is, told me that I needed not to worry because pills, food, room & board, diapers, bulb syringes, and anything else baby-related is covered in the price that we paid.  Whew.  What a relief to hear that!

She said that the only, and I made sure of this, way that we would get a bill for anything extra is if there are complications and the baby has to stay in the NICU.  (Please, please, please keep us in your thoughts and prayers that when the time comes he is healthy and won’t need to stay there.)

So while this whole baby thing has come with surprises, I am pleasantly happy with the fact that something seems to go our way and that pills will be provided at no additional cost to us.

After all, we’ve already paid the $3500 for it!

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I’ve heard about the Ricki Lake movie “The Business of Being Born” for some time now, but haven’t actually looked into watching it.  The other night as I was scrolling down to see what was on tv I saw that the movie was coming on one of the movie channels so I was happy to get to watch it since I obviously wasn’t being proactive on finding the movie out on my own.

It sort of made me wish that I watched it earlier in my pregnant instead of waiting until I was 37 weeks pregnant.  Oh well, what do you do?

I would recommend anyone watching it just to get a better idea on the whole hospital, midwife, birthing center, intervention options.  And I would recommend watching it early in your pregnancy so that you can actually form your own opinion about how you want to give birth.

I’m still okay with my choice of having my OB deliver my baby in a hospital, but I will admit that next time around I just might go a different route.  I like the idea of a home birth, but I am not sure that I could do that.  I think I would worry too much about the “what ifs” if I was at home.  What I do like about home births is the fact that you move around, could be in a tub, etc, and when you have your baby, it’s all about you and your new baby.

You aren’t hooked up to tons of machines getting tons of medicine and the same goes for your baby.  It seems peaceful and I like how the bonding between mom and baby was present.  Also, the natural high after childbirth seemed really fabulous too.

It’s funny because when we first started blogging about paying out of pocket for my OB and the hospital cost, many of you suggested the whole midwife route.  I will admit that I made a decision to use my OB because it’s just what I was comfortable with, but I will also admit that I probably should have done a little more research on the alternative.  I like the atmosphere in the room and the attention that is given with a midwife.

And, not going to lie, the cost is pretty fantastic too.  (We have paid over $10,000 for baby costs so far.  You can see the breakdown of costs here.  I hear that we could have paid about $4,000 instead.)

What I have known from the beginning of my pregnancy is that I am not a fan of having to be induced.  I do not want to be given synthetic drugs to move along the process; I just want the baby to come out naturally when he is ready.  (Of course I’m talking about him being healthy for all of this to work.)

In fact, I’m more terrified of pitocin than I am if I had to have a c-section.  I don’t like the idea of being super drugged up.  Yes, I am planning to get an epidural, but that’s really only when the pain is not tolerable anymore.  (After watching the movie I did think about what a badass I would be if I went completely natural, but I don’t want to get in over my head there either.  I like having the option of the epidural, should I still go that route.)

Another thing that I learned after watching “The Business of Being Born” is how c-sections have skyrocketed in the past years.  I can’t believe how many people elect to have them without having a medical reason to do so.  I checked my hospitals c-section rate and while it’s 43%, they do deliver over 10,000 babies per year and have an excellent NICU.

I guess it’s all relative, but I just hope that my labor and delivery goes smoothly, without many synthetic drugs.  I hate the idea of having to stay in the hospital for 2 days (hopefully not more).  I hate the idea of being hooked up to machines and having a catheter with an epidural.  I hate the idea of having to labor in a bed solely.

But, while I can list many negatives of the hospital experience, I love my OB and I trust that I’m in excellent hands with her.  She knows what I hope for in my labor and delivery and assuming my little boy is healthy and on the same page too, I know things will be as close to what I want as possible.

And seeing “The Business of Being Born” and knowing what I know now, the next pregnancy I will be a lot more informed about my options and, who knows, I just might try out a birthing center, home birth, or end up in the hospital again.  But I’ll worry about that pregnancy when the time comes.

Right now I’m just focusing on meeting my little man and having a little getaway… in the hospital.  Doesn’t that sound like fun?!

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Today I spent over $4,700 without even leaving the house.  Ugh.

I called the hospital to pay for little Tarzan’s birth and all the extras that come along with it.  On one hand, I feel extremely lucky that we were able to pay for everything upfront because that ultimately saves so much money in the end.  

But on the other hand, dammit, it was a lot of effing money to go out.

This is all best case scenario, of course:

Vaginal Delivery: $3,300 (C-Section would cost $5,500)

Anesthesia for the epidural: $1,200 (C-Section would cost $1,500)

To snip our son’s penis: $250

Grand total today: $4,750

Ouch.

Is it wrong that I get super jealous when I hear about people having wealthy relatives that make their life so much easier?  I wish I had one of those that would take pity on me.  

But I will admit that I’m happy that we won’t be stuck with thousands in hospital bills.  We (I) will have mini-T and walk out of the hospital knowing that my baby is paid for and that we’ve done our part instead of letting the hospital bills pile up.

And you can bet your ass I’ll be taking as much “free” stuff from the hospital that I can get my hands on.  After all, I did pay for it.

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Obviously this is not a subject any of us likes to talk about, but we have to accept the reality that there are some bad people out there.  Maybe my over-protective fatherhood mechanism is kicking in a little, or maybe I’m just being smart and safe.  But the fact is, over 2,100 children go missing in the US each day according to the Instant Amber website.  Yes, that is extremely frightening, but there is something you can do to add some peace of mind, and IS something Jane and I will be doing.

I urge anyone who has a child or is planning on have a child watch the video on the Instant Amber website.

This is a service I will be purchasing when Jane and I have our baby.  I 100% agree with what they are doing and really think that Instant Amber is a great idea.

Instant Amber isn’t just a service just for small children.  In the back office, you have the option to enter the URL of their profile pages on MySpace and/or Facebook if they have one.  So this is really a service anyone can use regardless of your child’s age.

You can provide other important details such as family information, friends, medical information, photos, birthmarks, etc.

Now God forbid anything ever happened, but if something did, law enforcement would be given access to the profile you create on Instant Amber of your child(ren) which would include the recent photos you’ve added, along with any other information you added.  This obviously would save a lot of time – at a time when ever second counts.

Once you create your child’s profile on Instant Amber, you can preview the page that law enforcement would see, which includes a page that can be printed out with the information and images that you supplied, which they can then distribute.  The information is always 100% secure and the only way law enforcement can access the Instant Amber page you created for your child(ren) is by entering in a password that you’ve created specifically for them.

Also what I think is VERY useful is that law enforcement can leave comments on the page you create on Instant Amber which only other law enforcement can view and comment on which obviously helps in any investigation.  That allows law enforcement to work together, provide any leads, etc.

Again, I know this is a subject that none of us want to talk about – let alone think about.  But as a soon-to-be parent and a big believer in technology, I know Instant Amber is a no-brainer service for anyone who has a child.  

And best of all, it’s very inexpensive.  Instant Amber is only $2.50 per month.  And as I mentioned above, I will be getting Instant Amber shortly after our baby is born and is something I’m sure I’ll keep for a very long time.

Heck, I pay $20 or so per month for the security/alarm for our house to protect the things inside our house – all of which can be replaced and is covered by insurance.  To have in a way an insurance and peace of mind for your child for $2.50 a month isn’t something I need to even think about.  For me, Instant Amber is worth a heck of a lot more than the price of a grande coffee at Star Bucks – that’s for sure.

I also just noticed on the Instant Amber website that you can give Instant Amber as a gift to someone – that’s a good idea too.

For more information and to watch the the Instant Amber video (located on the right side of the home page), click here.  (opens in a new window.)  You can also get a 30-day free trial of Instant Amber by clicking on the image below:

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I just created a new page that you can see on the top of our blog called, Cost of Having a Baby.  We decided to create this page to help give other soon-to-be parents, who are in our situation, an idea of how much it costs to have a baby – and what you can roughly expect to spend monthly.

As explained on the cost of having a baby page, we live in a large city, so the monthly costs for having a baby may be higher for us compared to someone who lives in a small town.  So this will at least give you an idea of what’ll be coming as far as doctor bills, hospital bills, blood work, ultrasounds, and whatever else there is.

Jane is 16 weeks pregnant and a a full-term pregnancy is 36-40 weeks.  So we have a good 21 to 25 weeks of pregnancy to go.

And as of this very moment, we’re under $100 away from breaking the $2,000 mark on out-of-pocket money spent thus far.  However, if you take in consideration for the money I’ve spent on gas (Doctor is 40+ minutes away from us) then we’re over $2,000 mark on money spent so far.

We have another $250+ pending that may need to be paid for blood work that was done at the first pregnancy appointment.  I’ll know what the deal is on that next week.  I’m hoping it is a billing mistake on their end.

In two weeks, we have our ultrasound to check in on our baby, and find out if we’ll be having a boy or girl.  That appointment isn’t at Jane’s Doctor’s office, it’s done at the hospital.  That’s going to be about $900.  OUCH.  The cost of having a baby will soon be jumping by leaps and bounds here.

We’re paying Jane’s doctor $528 every time we go for an appointment.  That money goes towards both the current appointment and Jane’s Doctor’s cost of delivering our baby.

The largest bills will obviously come from the hospital when our baby is born.  Jane will be in the hospital for a couple of days (I guess 2 days is average?) and there will be bills from the hospital, blood work people, drug people, and other people.  (I’m not sure of the proper name of all of the departments that the bills will be coming from, sorry.)

And as per a good recommendation from one of our pregnancy blog readers, I’ll be trying to wheel and deal with the hospital and any other places where we get bills from.  Hopefully I can get them to take at least 50% of the bill if I paid right then and there.

Now I don’t have the cash for those bills now, but even if I did when the time comes, here’s my plan to…

Save Thousands (I hope!) On
The Cost Of Having A Baby

1. Let everywhere we get bills from (or talk to the billing department before hand) know that we’re self-employed, we cannot qualify for Medicaid, and there are no plans in place a for nice, sweet, responsible, hard-working, appreciative (soon-to-be or current) parents like us who had one too many jello shots on Halloween.

2. Tell them all I can do is give them 40% of the bill right now, or else I’m going to have to make small payments that could take years to get the entire bill paid.

3. Negotiate with them.  Try to get 60% off the bill, if that doesn’t work, I’ll settle for 50% off.

4. Take one of those offers I keep getting from my bank where I can get a several thousand dollars interest free for 8-10 months or whatever it is.  Use that money to pay off the hospital, doctor, blood people, drug, people, etc. to drive down the overall and monthly cost of having a baby.

5. I will do my best to pay off this little loan (which basically goes on my credit card, but is interest free – up to a certain point, which I need to find out how much I can get) as fast as I can.  I hope to have this balance paid off before before the interest free period ends – or else they tack on all of the interest, sneaky little #&%’s.

6. If I do not have the balance paid in full, then I will use another one of those offers from another credit card I have where I can do a balance transfer and get 6 or 12 or whatever months interest free.  I’ll then pay off the balance on the other credit card with this new “interest free loan” and do all I can to pay that off during the interest-free time period.  If I’m unable to, then I’ll do it again so I can make sure that I never have to pay interest on this money spent to have our baby.

The above is my plan right now, but we of course have several months of pregnancy and several months of bills to go through.  So the above plan may change a little, or it could change a lot.  But at this very moment, I think it’s a pretty good plan to lower the overall cost of having a baby – which of course is a very, very good thing… especially in this economy.

One possible idea to negotiate with the hospital is letting them know that I have (or will soon have) living breathing proof that my boys can swim.  Maybe I could stop by once a week and work off my debt by providing them a fine specimen of the fruit of my loins, since I obviously have nice, strong, healthy little swimmers.  kidding.

If any of you have any ideas, tips, or suggestions that we can do now to lower our cost of having a baby, or ideas that we can keep in mind once the BIG hospital bills start pouring in, we’re all ears.  Thank you!  :)

Related posts:

1. The real cost of having a baby without maternity insurance: Major news here! Spoke to the hospital today. Jane and I just got back from her pregnancy week...
2. Final Cost To Have A Baby Without Maternity Insurance And Now Health Insurance! The One-Two Punch! Today I added the last few bills that have come...
3. 30 weeks pregnant: A very expensive day indeed, but Little Tarzan has been paid for! Today I spent over $4,700 without even leaving the house....