A.K.A "Health Insurance is the DEVIL"
I wanted to share this story as a warning to anyone that might find themselves in this situation. (Oooh, that started off dire didn't it?)
January 2011, I found out that I could be on my parent's health insurance until age 26, which was awesome! I quickly quit BYU health insurance and went to the dentist for the first time in a long time :) Garrett stayed on BYU insurance until he graduated at the end of April 2012. We decided to wait a little while to find him new health insurance, since we weren't sure exactly what his job situation would be. (Fun fact--you can only be uninsured for 62 days before it gets a lot harder to get insurance. I had no idea!)
About 3 weeks after Garrett graduated/lost his insurance we found out we were going to have a baby! I knew my parent's health insurance covered maternity, since I had researched this a lot, so we were good to go--we just had to pay 30% of all the maternity costs. We would not be allowed to add the baby to my parent's plan, but I thought, no big deal, we'll just get Garrett health insurance and add the baby to that plan.
Wrong!
Because guess what? Pregnancy is a "pre-existing condition" and if you or your wife is pregnant, insurance companies WILL NOT ADD YOU to their plan. The reasoning: some unknown thing may be wrong with the baby, and they don't want to have that risk. So Garrett cannot get insurance, I cannot get insured through a different plan and add dependents, and there is no one who will insure our unborn child. Insurance companies won't even consider letting you buy into their plan until the baby is 2 weeks old.
And guess what else? The baby costs money in the hospital! And it's not considered "maternity care". So the moment the doctor, nurses, pediatricians, whoever handle the baby, that is his own separate cost. A normal, no issues, no complications, perfectly healthy birth costs around $1100 per day for the baby at AF Hospital (that's after the 40% discount for paying up front).
So being pregnant is stressful right? I'm sure delivery is going to be stressful. And on top of that, if there are any problems with this baby, it's not only going to be devastating in its own right, but it could potentially cost us EVERYTHING! Some ladies in my ward were telling me that their babies had to spend a few nights in the NICU and it cost about $5,000 a day. One lady said it cost $80,000 for 3 weeks ("Thank goodness for insurance, right?" she said to me).
I have the papers all ready to send in when the baby turns 2 weeks old--hopefully coverage can start immediately, but who knows. I just have to make sure he doesn't get sick!
So now you know--but this will only be an issue until Obamacare 2014, when pregnancy will no longer be considered a pre-existing condition. So frustrating!
(and no, we don't qualify for Medicaid, CHIP, or any hospital assistance...and no, I'm not going to quit my job to qualify like the Medicaid office advised!)
I wanted to share this story as a warning to anyone that might find themselves in this situation. (Oooh, that started off dire didn't it?)
January 2011, I found out that I could be on my parent's health insurance until age 26, which was awesome! I quickly quit BYU health insurance and went to the dentist for the first time in a long time :) Garrett stayed on BYU insurance until he graduated at the end of April 2012. We decided to wait a little while to find him new health insurance, since we weren't sure exactly what his job situation would be. (Fun fact--you can only be uninsured for 62 days before it gets a lot harder to get insurance. I had no idea!)
About 3 weeks after Garrett graduated/lost his insurance we found out we were going to have a baby! I knew my parent's health insurance covered maternity, since I had researched this a lot, so we were good to go--we just had to pay 30% of all the maternity costs. We would not be allowed to add the baby to my parent's plan, but I thought, no big deal, we'll just get Garrett health insurance and add the baby to that plan.
Wrong!
Because guess what? Pregnancy is a "pre-existing condition" and if you or your wife is pregnant, insurance companies WILL NOT ADD YOU to their plan. The reasoning: some unknown thing may be wrong with the baby, and they don't want to have that risk. So Garrett cannot get insurance, I cannot get insured through a different plan and add dependents, and there is no one who will insure our unborn child. Insurance companies won't even consider letting you buy into their plan until the baby is 2 weeks old.
And guess what else? The baby costs money in the hospital! And it's not considered "maternity care". So the moment the doctor, nurses, pediatricians, whoever handle the baby, that is his own separate cost. A normal, no issues, no complications, perfectly healthy birth costs around $1100 per day for the baby at AF Hospital (that's after the 40% discount for paying up front).
So being pregnant is stressful right? I'm sure delivery is going to be stressful. And on top of that, if there are any problems with this baby, it's not only going to be devastating in its own right, but it could potentially cost us EVERYTHING! Some ladies in my ward were telling me that their babies had to spend a few nights in the NICU and it cost about $5,000 a day. One lady said it cost $80,000 for 3 weeks ("Thank goodness for insurance, right?" she said to me).
I have the papers all ready to send in when the baby turns 2 weeks old--hopefully coverage can start immediately, but who knows. I just have to make sure he doesn't get sick!
So now you know--but this will only be an issue until Obamacare 2014, when pregnancy will no longer be considered a pre-existing condition. So frustrating!
(and no, we don't qualify for Medicaid, CHIP, or any hospital assistance...and no, I'm not going to quit my job to qualify like the Medicaid office advised!)
3 comments:
When I heard about this over Christmas I had nightmares for days. Just want to let you know that I've been praying for you and the baby and Garrett since then. I'm a pretty big conservative but the more I see and read in health care the more I'm convinced we have to go to a system that provides universal coverage.
Sheesh, I thought the pre-existing condition thing was done for already (like how come Dave's insurance picked me up while pregnant?) ... I didn't know it wasn't until 2014! I can't believethe Medicaid lady told you to quit your job.
If you are on a company insurance plan, they can't exclude your dependents. Unfortunately we don't get insurance through our jobs.
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