Author Topic: Minimalist Healthcare with a potential baby on the way?  (Read 3038 times)

carytf

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Minimalist Healthcare with a potential baby on the way?
« on: December 15, 2015, 02:24:13 PM »
Hi guys!

My husband is about to take a new job which will not provide health insurance (I own my own small business and have been on his healthcare plan).  We don't currently have any kids but hopefully will start a family in the next couple of years.  My husband and I are very healthy and young-ish and in the past have had super-minimalist insurance like MMM, but I'm wondering if it might make sense to look into a different plan for this next brief period of life.

Any parents or parents-to-be know of an affordable healthcare option for pregnancy/a new infant? 


Oh, I'm in the Bay Area if that's relevant.

Thank you so so much!
Cary

Gin1984

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Re: Minimalist Healthcare with a potential baby on the way?
« Reply #1 on: December 15, 2015, 02:28:55 PM »
Get health insurance through the ACA.  Done.  Having a child is not the time to attempt to be a "minimalist" in regards to insurance.

rubybeth

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Re: Minimalist Healthcare with a potential baby on the way?
« Reply #2 on: December 15, 2015, 02:35:02 PM »
When you're trying to get pregnant and pregnant and then have an infant human that you are in charge of, you are better off having health insurance with a deductible you can afford. I've heard estimates that a regular labor and delivery with no epidural or any kind of complication can cost $10,000, probably more in your area. And there are lots of doctor visits in the run up to that labor and delivery, like every month (I don't have kids, but this is what friends who have kids report on Facebook--lots of time spent getting checked to make sure things are growing correctly/normally, and if not, other doctor visits to rule out all kinds of things can get even more expensive). Also, kids get sick. With your first kid, you are likely to be touchy in terms of their general well-being and health, and will want to take them to the doctor when they spike a fever at 2am or are barfing constantly for 3 days or whatever. That's life.

All this to say, I second the recommendation to check out your state's exchange for a plan, or healthcare.gov.

I love my plan through my state's exchange (I re-enrolled for 2016 after having a good experience for 2014 and 2015), and my husband's plan is also through the exchange and it's been good so far (he left his job and got onto an exchange plan this fall, so less than 6 mos. experience with it, but it was easy to apply).

SKL-HOU

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Re: Minimalist Healthcare with a potential baby on the way?
« Reply #3 on: December 15, 2015, 03:29:01 PM »
Get health insurance through the ACA.  Done.  Having a child is not the time to attempt to be a "minimalist" in regards to insurance.

This! I have always been very healthy myself. But for some reason (still unknown) I had a premiee born at 25 weeks. 3.5 months of hospital stay was 500k. I only paid $1250 because of my insurance. This does not count any birth related costs even. He was born new year's day so I had to meet deductible/OOP max for both years $1250 each.

little_brown_dog

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Re: Minimalist Healthcare with a potential baby on the way?
« Reply #4 on: December 15, 2015, 03:30:58 PM »
+1 to finding better health coverage.
There is a huge misconception that a young, healthy woman automatically will have no complications  or require additional tests. Every one of the women I know who has been pregnant in the last couple of years had some sort of issue, and all of them were in their 20s or early 30s and were very healthy (myself included). Miscarriage, unexpected bleeding/mystery symptoms, questionable blood or ultrasound results that required some follow up testing, csection, a baby born a few weeks early and requiring extra follow up visits or an extra night or two in the hospital  - all of these are very common. Do yourself and your potential little one a favor and pay for the better insurance. It will be a life saver.