We may have to pay quite a bit out-of-pocket for our baby's birth.
I have a wonderful doctor that I love, and who is supportive of natural childbirth. The hospital we chose allows you to labor in any position and allows minimal fetal monitoring. We made these choices very very carefully. I want a natural childbirth. Matt and I had considered home birthing but ultimately decided that we felt more comfortable, for our first birth, in the hospital.
Our insurance changed when Matt started his job. We now have a Point-of-Service plan, in which you have an HMO option (everything is 100% covered, but you have to use the doctors that the HMO assigns for you) or a PPO option (we pay 20%). We thought this would work out great, but alas, we will have to pay quite a bit out-of-pocket if we go with our OB, who is on the PPO but not the HMO. Are you still with me? Snoring? Bored?
If you have had a baby, and you are reading this, and you feel comfortable, please comment and share with me what you paid out-of-pocket for your birth. I'd also love to know what the total cost was (what insurance covered, what you paid), and what kind of birth experience you had. I'm just curious.
I don't want to change doctors. It's extremely hard to find a doctor who sees value in natural childbirth. It's even harder to find that when you are randomly being assigned an OB by your HMO.
Baby Pavelka is going to learn to fill out job applications as soon as he can read.
Dear Lindsay Laundromatt:
ReplyDeleteInsurance is ridiculous, but I will say that although we were set to pay more out of pocket, with certain situations that occured with the birth of our children, the insurance still covered quite a bit of everythin thanks to a Minnesota pre-natal law that supposedly exists to have the company pay for the visits. We paid closer to $7500, with insurance covering the other half. By the time our son was born, we paid closer to $8000 and the insurance company covered the other near $8000. Going forward, with my job now, I do a savings plan where I have tax free dollars placed into an account that I use for doctor's visits, which usually cover all but $80 and also reimburse for medicines and such. Although I aimed for as natural of a birth to begin with, both of our children were born via c-section, the first after a long labor, our son that was the route we went because of the first pregnancy. All the best to you and good luck!