How can anybody afford to have a baby

[OutHouse]

1st daughter born 1993 on a air force base cost me $9.50 and i still have the receipt.
2nd daughter born 1996 on a air force base cost me $12.00 still have the receipt.
son born 1999 in civilian hospital after i got out cost me $300. using the same health insurance i have now through united health care.

 

[Alienwho]

I always thought my employer insurance was just an anomaly of crap, but all 3 of my most recent employers (2005-today) have had almost identical policies.

 

[ThePresence]

It may have been $30 with the crappy insurance, I can't remember to be certain. But everything else was covered, including the first 30 days post-natal care.

Wow, my inpatient hospital copay is <$100 a day. That's where Aflac comes in.

 

[fisheerman]

AFAIK all doctor and hospital visits are free? Ohh, USA. Nevermind.

Most hospitals will neg. the rates if you are paying out of pocket.

There was recently a guy on reuters who neg. his childs birth down to like $3800 out of pocket no insurance pre baby. so he started paying early and setup a monthly payment plan and had the kid

Ill see if i can find it

 

[HydroSqueegee]

my first son cost me $20 out of pocket. excellent affordable insurance. My second son, not so much. $7000. that was ok affordable insurance.

it all depends on your plan...

 

[spidey07]

In your situation it appears there aren't any hidden costs beyond that. Consider yourself lucky. In my work insurance under maternity it says "see general insurance deductible and costs". So either way they aren't paying one cent until I throw down the 5k deductible.

You've got to be reading something wrong. Call the insurance company. Even the worst of worst plans are better than what you're describing.

 

[Homerboy]

It's not free anywhere in the world that I know of. The only differences are who bills you for it and when you pay for it.

no no no... his gov't pays for it. And they get their money from... er.. wait. Nevermind.

 

[rcpratt]

Most of the birth/hospital costs should be covered by insurance. Do you happen to have the worst insurance on the planet - HMO? Deductible & monthly cost seems a bit excessive.

With PPO insurance (my cost is about $180 per month, employer picks up the rest), the total cost for our 2 kids was about $200.00 each out of pocket with the rest picked up by insurance. That was at the local hospital. Pretty sure it would've been a lot more costly if we would've gone to an "expensive" hospital...

My HMO has no deductible and looks like it covers it all - and my OOP expense is only $35/mo. (individual). Guess I'm just lucky...although I haven't had to test it yet to see how much of a pain they are.

 

[dabuddha]

Cost me $100 for my 2nd child. Standard delivery. For my first child, it was $900 out of pocket. Total cost for her though was over $100k w/o insurance. She spent a month in the NICU.

 

[Homerboy]

My HMO has no deductible and looks like it covers it all - and my OOP expense is only $35/mo. (individual). Guess I'm just lucky...although I haven't had to test it yet to see how much of a pain they are.

No you ARE lucky if you haven't had to test it yet. That's the LUCKIEST possible scenerio.

 

[phoenix79]

Ours is gonna cost us the $350 deductible for the hospital admit, and that's it. I love working for the state

 

[ThePresence]

Cost me $100 for my 2nd child. Standard delivery. For my first child, it was $900 out of pocket. Total cost for her though was over $100k w/o insurance. She spent a month in the NICU.

Insurance never pays what they are billed. Look through the itemized bills, insurance probably paid 20k.

 

[SunnyD]

Wow, my inpatient hospital copay is <$100 a day. That's where Aflac comes in.

Just looked up my plan policy...

For other services, my plan deductible is $300 ($900 family aggregate).

FWIW, #5 is due in January. I'm by no means an ATOT Millionaire either, but we get by just fine.

 

[OutHouse]

pffft if you're having issues paying for the BIRTH of the baby, wait until you see what they cost AFTER.

That being said, welcome to grown up life. We just had ours, got the bill and worked through it.

QFT

wait until they get into high school. i swear every time i turn around somebody is standing there with their hand out saying they need money for something...

 

[phoenix79]

Just looked up my plan policy...

Looks identical to ours, but when we asked they said you still have to pay for the hospital admit deductible...

 

[rudder]

AFAIK all doctor and hospital visits are free? Ohh, USA. Nevermind.

Where are you from? Are your doctors visits really free? Personally I would rather go see a family doctor who earns $160,000 per year versus a witch doctor who gets paid in chickens. Whats that? The doctors where you live earn cash money? Then it is not free.

back to the OP... if you are worried about what it costs for the actual delivery.. then you should really wait on a child. My daughter plays fastpitch softball and is a pitch. I think I have spent $10,000 on cleats already. And that is just one child. It's expensive man!

 

[darkxshade]

You're doing it wrong OP. Raising babies can become profitable if you know what to do.

 

[MrChad]

In your situation it appears there aren't any hidden costs beyond that. Consider yourself lucky. In my work insurance under maternity it says "see general insurance deductible and costs". So either way they aren't paying one cent until I throw down the 5k deductible.

Do you have an HSA plan? I can't imagine having a high deductible plan like that without an HSA.

I had a great health plan before that covered all my wifes prenatal expenses fully. We switched to an HSA plan with a $2500 deductible, but between my contributions to the HSA and my employers' the deductible is covered.

 

[Turin39789]

We are having one and expect to be out my wifes $2000 deductible, but looking at the costs at the beginning of the year it would have been more expensive to jump up to a plan that pays 100&#37; or has a low deductible because the upfront cost for the plan far exceeded our deductible.

 

[JulesMaximus]

There is a reason Medicaid babbies perpetuate the Medicaid cycle...

Be thankful you can afford good health care. 8k doesn't seem that bad for a babby.

Mine didn't cost us anything out of pocket. Insurance covered everything.

I'd be fucking steamed too if I had to pay $8k out of pocket for this. What the fuck good is insurance that doesn't cover something as common and natural as the birth of a child?

 

[Sinsear]

Also, if she's not pregnant yet you can get Aflac to send you some money.

Yeah Aflac will work. Only they will not pay out if baby is born within 10 months of starting policy.


My wife is pregnant now. 100% is covered by my insurance (minus the $20 co-pay).

 

[Dirigible]

Mine cost between $3k and $4k each. :shrug:

 

[Alienwho]

No supplemental insurance is offered in my state. That includes aflac.

How much are you guys paying on your premiums that get 100&#37; covered? It just feels like such a waste for me spending $160/per PAYCHECK ($320/month) on insurance that doesn't even contribute to labor costs.

 

[MrChad]

No supplemental insurance is offered in my state. That includes aflac.

How much are you guys paying on your premiums that get 100% covered? It just feels like such a waste for me spending $160/per PAYCHECK ($320/month) on insurance that doesn't even contribute to labor costs.

At this year's rates, the plan I had before (that covered everything) was around $210 / paycheck. On a high deductible HSA now that costs me around $160 / paycheck, but I contribute $50 on top of that to my HSA to cover the deductible.

 

[ichy]

::Checks expiration date on condoms::

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure