How can anybody afford to have a baby

[IGBT]

much of the 7k you pay is so illegal alien parasites can get walk in on demand service.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

stop being poor.

 

[PingSpike]

This is total bullshit. It's so unfortunate that our health care system is so broken in this country and it will NEVER get any better. It will only get worse every time the morons up top try to fix it.

I have done all the math and calculations, and there is no way it is possible for my wife to have a baby for less than $8000 out of pocket expenses. It doesn't matter if I use my work health insurance ($5000 deductible and $320/month) or find some independent insurance (~$100/month, $7500 maternity deductible). Supplemental insurance is not offered by anyone in my state.

The kicker is that the average birth costs about $7000. So after paying for all the insurance payments, chances are it won't even be used anyway (hence the $7500 deductible).

It's total bullcrap that I can bust my balls working a job to make enough money to afford a baby and come out with no money at the end of the ordeal when I can quit my job and watch TV all day, qualify for medicaid and have a baby for free. Either way I'm broke at the end of 9 months, so why bust my balls working for no reason?

You should get divorced and then your wife can go on welfare and get the birth paid for for free while you live together. That's how they do it. Afterward you can probably get food stamps and shit too.

 

[JulesMaximus]

much of the 7k you pay is so illegal alien parasites can get walk in on demand service.

How much of your health care premiums do you suppose insurance companies spend on lobbying?

 

[JulesMaximus]

stop being poor.

Agreed. I wipe my ass with hundred dollar bills and flush them down the toilet.

 

[Train]

IIRC, I paid $4k out of pocket on my wife's old crappy insurance, but overall, $4k wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.

The insurance we have now is way better, will basically pay 100% on our next kid.

PRO TIP: Get Aflac before getting pregnant. It's the tits. I wish we had it before being pregnant, it REALLY helps offset a lot of bills and helps pay for things during maternity leave or any missed work due to appointments, etc.

 

[Ruptga]

Outsource the baby? I mean, it works for everything else, other medical expenses included.

 

[dabuddha]

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

Oh I know. That's just the amount that was on the bill the hospital sent me so I imagine that's what they would have expected me to pay if I didn't have my insurance. Either way, thank god for BCBS

 

[PingSpike]

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.

While your insurance options are particularly terrible IMO, a lot of people here are quoting insurance that is better than I've heard of anyone having. I'm wondering if many of them didn't have kids 20 years ago and things have changed for the worse since then.

I remember a particularly hilarious dental insurance offering a previous employer of mine had. The cost was something like $50 a month, upon close inspection of the coverage I found that it covered 80% of cleanings (which cost less than $50/mo) and nothing else. Completely pointless.

 

[aldamon]

What the fuck good is insurance that doesn't cover something as common and natural as the birth of a child?

Common, natural, and yet still optional. I see the numbers you guys are reporting and I'm stunned your out-of-pocket cost is not higher. I won't say any more because this isn't P&N.

 

[Ryland]

11 years ago it cost me $0 for my son to be born excluding the regular doctor visits leading up to the actual birth.

 

[metalmania]

A few years ago our company insurance was so good that I paid less than $50 when my son was born, including the TV channel fee.

 

[ShockwaveVT]

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.

Have you actually called your health insurance provider to ask how much maternity they will cover? I think you've got to be misinterpreting your plan or you just have some kind super-minimal catastrophic care only type of plan.

And what state do you live in that supplemental insurance is not available?

Finally, why do you think you have to go to the hospital to have a baby? People have been having kids for thousands of years without modern hospitals. You might want to look into natural childbirth / midwife services, they might be less expensive.

 

[AreaCode707]

I would bet lunch on the fact that you have a choice of insurance plans through your job.

What plans does your company offer, who is the insurer and what plan did you pick? Somehow I'm guessing you didn't pick the slightly pricier insurance plan that covers more and now you are mid-year and cannot change your insurance coverage selection until the next open enrollment.

 

[Homerboy]

I would bet lunch on the fact that you have a choice of insurance plans through your job.

What plans does your company offer, who is the insurer and what plan did you pick? Somehow I'm guessing you didn't pick the slightly pricier insurance plan that covers more and now you are mid-year and cannot change your insurance coverage selection until the next open enrollment.

I would also bet your lunch that many (most) employers do offer 2 options: Plan A, or No Plan. Welcome to 2010.

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

That's some crazy deductible. My oop was $500 for my 6 month old and 3 year old.

 

[ThePresence]

Finally, why do you think you have to go to the hospital to have a baby? People have been having kids for thousands of years without modern hospitals. You might want to look into natural childbirth / midwife services, they might be less expensive.

And for thousands of years children and mothers have been dying in childbirth due to complications. Do not do this. Just my opinion.

 

[AreaCode707]

I would also bet your lunch that many (most) employers do offer 2 options: Plan A, or No Plan. Welcome to 2010.

8 years of HR experience here and I have rarely seen that. Most employers of white collar workers (I'm making an assumption that the OP is an office grunt like most of us ATOTers) offer a version of PPO, some form of HMO or EPO and often also an HSA style plan.

 

[sao123]

PPO BCBS... Paid $35 out of pocket.

 

[AstroManLuca]

I haven't read the fine print but it's something like an extra $400/mo to add my wife on to my work health insurance, and the deductible is like $1500. Oh, and I get $1000 a year into an HSA from my work so it's actually only a $500 deductible (assuming I don't use my HSA card for other things). We haven't put her on it yet because of the high monthly cost (she has catastrophic coverage for now). But when we do want to have kids it'll be a good deal.

 

[nerp]

I'm one of those lucky people with really good health insurance. My wife had a severe (nearly fatal) infection after giving birth and was in the ICU for a week. The last thing I had to worry about during that time of family crisis was how to pay for it. We met our reasonable deductible leading up to the pregnancy with her checkups and visits. The birth and subsequent care for the infection afterwards was totally free. Good thing -- the total billed to the insurance company was right around $100,000.

 

[AreaCode707]

OP, which job did you decide to take?
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2112234&highlight=job

 

[DrPizza]

$320 a month & you have to pay that much out of pocket? That's highway robbery, not insurance.

 

[CPA]

Dude, $8K is nothing compared to what you'll have to spend on the kid for the next 20 years. BTW, you have crappy insurance if you have a $5K deductible. What's your out of pocket annual max?

 

[CPA]

8 years of HR experience here and I have rarely seen that. Most employers of white collar workers (I'm making an assumption that the OP is an office grunt like most of us ATOTers) offer a version of PPO, some form of HMO or EPO and often also an HSA style plan.

And not only that but they offer different levels of deductibles and out of pocket maximums, which will impact rates.