Health insurance emergency!

BoostedBrandon wrote: In reply to tuna55: Don't just tell me, LINKS MAN, LINKS!

https://www.ehealthinsurance.com/?allid=App24610&campaign=leadNew610be

http://www.insureme.com/

You WILL have to talk on the phone. It is worth it, although be prepared for ten phone calls. Be nice. They are all very similarly priced and compete against each other to get to you first.

A friend just had her baby. He came three weeks early. Not related to the early-ness, he would not breathe once the cord was cut at the birthing center (once of the reasons I recommend a hospital birth, my first would not be alive had we used a birthing center). He is in the NICU and will be there for at least three days if he makes it that long. If he lives, the bill will be in the tens of thousands. If he doesn't, it still will be. This just happened today. My first-hand friend. Be prepared. I don't always condone insurance, but for pregnancy things can go really wrong and get really expensive really fast.

Keep us posted.

When my first son was born things didn't go exactly as planned. The bill from the hospital for emergency surgery was $37k. The follow-up care was on top of that.

Join up at work, post haste if you aren't the gambling sort. Or... you could always sell the first baby and keep the second one :)

Insurance through work should be one of your better options, especially with a pre-existing condition. There's usually a waiting period if you have a pre-existing condition because you haven't had continuous coverage, it will likely be 3-6 months.

Doesn't hurt to get quotes from other sources, but make sure you're making apples to apples comparisons across the various quotes.

Toyman01 wrote:

SVreX wrote: Best scenario would be to have insurance for the catastrophic, and negotiate cash for the expected.

This is what i do. Really high deductible ($8K), cash for everything else. Doctors love cash around here. Usually good for a 40-60% discount.

If everyone did this doctor's would be required to market and deliver services with price as a concern

Right now that element is absent from the process

I would recommend the op pick up insurance asap. It seems unlikely he has cash on hand and even I'd he sis there is plenty which can go wrong

My wife has a complex medical history thanks to a nasty car wreck which really made a mess. It is a military service related so the VA picks up the tab for that stuff, but part of the problem is some gortex holding her heart together and something in there is causing blood clots resulting in mini strokes fairly frequently.

The twins....... Twins..... Were delivered by c section nearly four weeks early

Guess how fast medical bills rack up in the NICU

BoostedBrandon wrote: They also offer an HSA but the deductible on a family plan is like $6000. Medicaid is not an option, our income is too high. Last kiddo that's what we had, and it was pleasant.

Have another good look at the HSA - the deductible might be $6k combined ($3k for you, $3k for other family members) and it should be substantially cheaper than the regular plan. At least that was the case with the high deductible plan we had at work last year. At least that way you'll have insurance in case something goes really pear shaped.

I apologize for not reading all the posts here, but, the various states have all kinds of programs for the preggers set without insurance. Have you looked into contacting your local authority on such matters?

Have you checked into enrolling? In both my wife's and my work-sponsored plans we cannot enroll in health insurance or an HSA unless it is during open enrollment, or a change in family status occurs - ie, a child is born, the spouse loses their benefits unexpectedly, or the like.

You wouldn't be able to enroll in health insurance-related benefits at our companies until November, effective Jan 1st, or your child was born, whichever is first.

You could always enroll in a private insurance plan with catastrophic coverage, but that may not end up being cheaper, I dunno.

FWIW, our child's C-Section birth and stay last year was about $15k all told. It was a planned natural birth, but nothing ever goes to plan does it? She ended up in the NICU for a few hours, but sometimes it's days or weeks. Heaven forbid they're born at 26 weeks and spend months in the NICU.

Not trying to go political. This is a must read.

http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/

In your situation, I'd say a negotiated amount with a catastrophic policy is probably the way to go. The hospital will need that insurance info at check in time. Just be prepared for all kinds of billing crap to show up in the mail that you were not aware of.