Curious Canadian looking for Americans input:)

[MeaganMackenz]

Hi ladies,

Sorry this is probably the worst place to put this but there's so many forums I couldn't choose.

I'm extremely curious, for anyone open enough to share, how much has / will having a baby cost you living in the states?

Do you know ahead of time or will you not find out until baby is delivered? If you have insurance do you know what it costs even though you don't have to pay?

I'm sorry if this is personal, I've always been curious and honestly a bit jealous. I know my health care is free but sometimes it lacks in comparison to Americans.

If there's anyone open enough to ease my curiosity, or can give a general idea of costs I would be incredibly appreciative.

Happy new year!

 

[redneckhippy]

Mine won't cost me anything, but I'm lucky to have Tricare (military insurance). I think it normally costs quite a bit from what I'm told?

 

[proxy bump]

I luckily fall beneath the poverity line being an unwed mother in my state so I will be covered but I know it can get up in the high thousands for just having the baby. I have a few medical bills I still need to pay off from where there was a lapse in my coverage for er charges which is almost a thousand for something that didnt last longer than thirty minutes to check me out.

 

[Mommy2missR]

It depends on a LOT of different things, your insurance, the charge for the hospital, the rate for the Dr etc. This baby won't cost ME anything as I have double coverage (TriCare and Blue Cross), insurance........... that's a whole different story. I think for a 2 day hospital stay, regular vaginal delivery at Women and Infants in Providence, RI seven years ago it was upwards of $12,000 of which I had to pay 20% (I had United Health then). I can let you know in a month or two when I get the bill for this one when he gets here next month.

 

[Pix]

We have decent insurance but a high deductible. At the beginning of the pregnancy I got a notice that my bill would have to be paid in full by 27 weeks. Which BTW is illegal. That was for the 'global' plan. Approx $4500... And did not include nst, extra ultrasounds, or anything out of a normal pregnancy. This doesn't get billed officially until I deliver. At that point they review it and bill for what I used. All the extras got billed separately. So far that total is close to $2000... Our insurance once we hit the deductible his employer cuts us a check for half. Soooooo complicated. So without insurance about $6500. After its all said and done I'll only have had to pay $3000. Not bad considering what it was for my dd and Ds.

Now there's also anesthesia. Specialist costs. Ect. Ec . Again luckily what we have to pay in a year is capped. And our year for insurance runs July to June.

 

[Radkat]

I agree with PP that it totally depends on your insurance, coverage, etc. With my DD 2 years ago, I paid nothing because my plan covered 100% of maternity and hospital procedures. Currently, I choose the only free plan that my agency offers which would cover 90% of hospital costs, but since I'm getting charged $1400 for my D&C last March (full cost was over $15,000, which just seems outrageous), I'm switching over to the plan that my agency offers where I'll have to pay a monthly premium, but 100% of my hospital bills will be paid. Totally worth it since I know I'll be giving birth in 2015. Otherwise, I would probably keep the free/no month premium option.

 

[pansorie]

I have double insurance, so it is not costing me a dime. However, my below poverty line sister in law has accrued debt from her son's birth.

Two years ago she had been pregnant and had a high deductible insurance as well as medicaid. She ended up delivering a stillborn at 9 months, sadly, and due to the poor treatment at that hospital, she decided not to go back.

When she became pregnant with her son the particular doctor she chose would not take medicaid, so she had to rely on her high deductible insurance. She came away with 7k worth of medical bills. But had she stuck with the medicaid she would not have paid a penny as well.

 

[zorak]

I have good insurance and all my prenatal, postnatal and delivery care for me and LO was only $500.

 

[Amythyst]

I have decent insurance through my company. I have an initial deductible of 250 dollars and then after that the insurance pays 90% of everything up to a max out of pocket of 2,250 dollars. Then after that, they pay 100% of everything.

Its been weird though, I paid my 250 dollar initial deductible this year but for the most part, they have been paying 100% of my bills. My OB's office actually holds off on billing until I deliver. So, they have not submitted anything to insurance. My high risk doctor has been submitting for all my ultrasounds and doctor visits and it has been covered 100%. My prescriptions I pay between 10-30 dollars depending on what it is and if I use the mail order system or not.

So, I will basically end up only paying 2,500 for the baby next year. Its still a lot, but between my company bonus that I get in a few weeks and *hopefully* get a tax refund early next year, it won't be a big deal.

 

[MeaganMackenz]

Wow, thanks ladies for the info. I think my head would spin with all the insurance options you guys must have! We have excellent coverage from his union for prescriptions, dental, life insurance etc but we pay between 3 and 4 thousand dollars just for that a year. I wouldn't want to think about if we had to pay for something that would include hospitals.

Thanks for the info, I welcome more ladies to share their hospital bill stories

 

[Menelly]

We have a $4000 deductible and pay 20% of costs after that on our "main" insurance, which would probably run us $6000 or so if I didn't have secondary insurance. Fortunately I do, but a lot of people don't have that option.

 

[Julesillini8]

My first baby cost us $7300 total for every little thing. Second one was a bit over $6000 can't remember the except number like I did my first hehe.
This one I have a different ins carrier, plan, and unfortunately a diff Ob group ( I loved my first Ob, best dr I ever met) and this one should be about $3000 give or take a little.
All in all, my kids will cost me about 15 grand to birth! Ugh!

 

[MeaganMackenz]

Holy cow. I think I can shamefully admit that if those costs were put in front of me I'm not sure I'd have kids. At least not on number 3, maybe 2 as hubby has been with a great company for almost 5 years but there's no way we would have afforded anything in the thousands when we had my oldest daughter.

Hearing these amounts does make me slightly less jealous, but I do envy how quickly things move for you guys. We may be free but we're slow as molasses. Not sure which is better quick and costly or slow and free lol. Guess it depends on what's going on.

Anyways, wow thank you gals so much. I've always been curious but have 0 American friends to ask, so yay for here and being able to ask! Xox

 

[Julesillini8]

Well our problem was we had summer babies, so we paid the deductible - two years ( it starts over jan 1st) so I paid a few thousands ( deductible was like 3000 or 4000) the first yewr, end of the year, for bloodwork, ultrasounds, testing etc, then the next yr when baby was delivered I paid that deductible again for hospital, dr etc. truly I should get pregnant in January to deliver in oct, then would only pay once. Not sure if that makes sense or not....
This time around my deductible is $1500 and baby's will be $1500 which they get charged for hospital fees too! Ha! So around 3000 ish.... I haven't paid anything yet, it's a global fee from this group so pay once for the whole package after delivery.

 

[minties]

Wowee! How much do you all pay for insurance a week?

 

[Julesillini8]

We pay about $275 a month ( it's family plan, so will be for our whole family of 5 soon... ) that's not too bad for our monthly premium really, but we have a higher deductible so....

 

[MeaganMackenz]

I'm sure that question applies to the Americans, but for what insurance we have (dental, prescriptions, life insurance etc) it comes off my husbands cheque as per the union. He pays 1.85 per hour worked to his insurance, ends up 3 or 4 thousand a year.

But yes, really, what does all this insurance cost? Lol

 

[Surprised26]

I have a few friends in Canada, so I've heard the horror stories of how long the wait is for specialized procedures like MRIs and CAT scans. Sounds kind of scary if something serious were to pop up.

I'm "lucky" enough to currently be eligible for Medicaid, so my costs are covered until 6 weeks postpartum, then I no longer qualify for medical care. I was fired from my job for announcing my pregnancy, so I literally had no other choice but to seek state care.

Anyway through skimming these answers, I just wanted to add (in case it's not completely obvious, which reading through I thought it might be blurry) that on top of the "deductibles" being paid by these ladies, in most cases there is also a monthly or weekly fee charged for insurance to cover the rest, which usually runs around $300 or so a month (of course depending on job benefits it can be much lower or much higher). So even with insurance, the costs do add up quite fast, and on most insurance plans I've been offered through my job history, Dental, Vision, Life, and insurance on any pre-existing condition ( ie sleep apnea, asthma ect) all add on addition charges to the monthly premium to be included in the "deductible" coverage, otherwise those services are 100% the responsibility of the individual.

And of course now we have Obamacare, which means if you make just enough money not to qualify for medicaid but make to little to be able to afford your company's offered insurance you now get charged a $300+ penalty for not having coverage (whether or not you seek medical care at all).

So basically, unless your job has really great insurance plans, you pay out the bum no matter what, lol.

 

[Menelly]

Holy cow. I think I can shamefully admit that if those costs were put in front of me I'm not sure I'd have kids. At least not on number 3, maybe 2 as hubby has been with a great company for almost 5 years but there's no way we would have afforded anything in the thousands when we had my oldest daughter.

Hearing these amounts does make me slightly less jealous, but I do envy how quickly things move for you guys. We may be free but we're slow as molasses. Not sure which is better quick and costly or slow and free lol. Guess it depends on what's going on.

Anyways, wow thank you gals so much. I've always been curious but have 0 American friends to ask, so yay for here and being able to ask! Xox

The US can be slow as snails too, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. I needed an appointment with a rheumatologist after my daughter was born due to an autoimmune flare. I called every radiologist on my insurance plan within a 75 mile radius, and the soonest I could get in was 4.5 months. We wait here too, and we pay out the nose for the privilege.

 

[Cattia]

Reading all this makes me so grateful that we have the National Health Service here in the UK. Everything is free and if you aren't satisfied with the care then you can pay to go private. It's an amazing system!