The cost of giving birth in the US

[duckens]

 

And dh's insurance considered pregnancy a pre-existing condition,

When I asked about health insurance that covered pregnancy in my mid-twenties (in a stable relationship, but also not married, engaged, or planning any babies for several years), our insurance agent told us that:

 

"Pregnancy is not covered because it is a PLANNED event."    :lol:

 

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In our town, if you drive to the hospital and give birth by yourself in the hospital parking lot, you are still charged for a birth.     If you give birth two block away in your car, you are charged for the ambulance ride, but not the full birth.  :lol:

 

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To their credit, all of the obstetricians in my current town accept Medicaid, so no woman has to drive several hours one way to the University Hospital for prenatal and delivery care.  This is not the case in all towns.

 

[EthiopianFood]

It is my understanding that if your premiums would be more than 8% of your pay you would qualify.

The letter we got didn't say anything about percentage of income.

[4everHis]

Oh wow dh makes $30,000 a year, there are three of us (soon to be four). Dd and I both have Medicaid (Michigan Healthy Kids). Is there a program available that has a low monthly fee for uninsured children? In MI there a variation of healthy kids (MiCHILD) where you pay $10.00 a month for all the children. This is what we had originally signed dd up for, but was told we qualified for the free one.

I'm pretty sure this is what they had. I was wondering if Michigan is just 'forcing' everyone to reapply, maybe hoping to weed out the list? This family seemed like a no brainer to me and were cancelled with 0 warning.

[MomtoCandJ]

I wouldn't doubt it any connib. We had dd on it before and were booted off. She was on regular Medicaid when she was booted. We thought it was because our income had increased so just signed her up for MICHILD, thinking we would have to pay the $10.00 a month for her. I know they had a thing going for a while that if you didn't go to your appointments or missed a well check, they would give you the boot.

[redsquirrel]

Yep, in our county, this is very true. Many Medicaid recipients can't make it the 50 min. drive one way to the only OB office accepting new Medicaid patients, so they get a little prenatal care at the health department...an OB nurse records weight, does a urine analysis, blood pressure, and hands out prenatal vitamins. Many will never see a doc the entire pregnancy. Then when they go into labor, they call the ambulance which Medicaid does have to pay for so they have a ride to the hospital and someone to deliver the little one if labor progresses too rapidly. The county hospital is terrified of women delivering in the ER, and routinely wave the ambulances on in the hopes they'll make it in time. Some don't, and the medics catch...works out well, medics are calm and outside of starting and IV and tributerol drip for pre-term labor, don't have a lot of options for interventions, so hey...they just pull over, catch, APGAR score the babe, make sure mom is doing okay, wrap the little person up and hand to mom, almost never cut the cord unless the afterbirth comes before reaching the ER, look over the afterbirth and bag it up for OB staff, and off they go again. Seriously, there is a medic in our county that has delivered 30 babies in the last ten years, and local women report that if you need to deliver, he's the man you want! Apparently, he is very sweet and supportive during labor and his EMT partner is a doll!

 

So, that's America for you! But, it's not as though this is new. Many, many rural areas of the US have always been underserved, badly underserved and so dealing with the medical mess of not having practitioners who deal with medical condition X anywhere within a reasonable commuting distance is normal, unfortunately.

 

By the way, your delivery by medic, runs around $600-800.00. It's a real bargain! :D  DD says she would be more than happy to attend your birth! (Stinker medic that she is!)

 

 

Faith

 

I don't live in a county with a county hospital. It is a private one and it is the only one. And the one ambulance service is a private company. The company that owns the ambulance also owns the funeral home....ahhhh, small towns.

 

It costs a whole lot more than 800$ to take the ambulance for any reason. I have had to call the ambulance once in all the time I lived here and it was about 20 years ago (! where did the time go?) because a friend was unresponsive due to low blood sugar etc. It cost 1000$ for just the ride in the ambulance. And because they are a private company they don't accept insurance. You pay them and then you do battle with your insurance company to try to get reimbursed.

 

I am not arguing that a medics provide excellent medical care, I am more of a planned  homebirth with a certified nurse midwife type myself. I am in complete agreement that OBs are not necessary for a typical birth. I am just pointing out that for lots of poor women in my county (and others) calling an ambulance and having medics deliver is not an affordable option.

 

What I do see happening is that lots of them opt for an induced birth before their due date. The local hospital has an astonishing rate of induction. That way moms know they have a ride and their other kids are cared for etc. It is a reasonable choice to make given the options. However, induction and all the attendant cascade of interventions that typically follow raises the cost of the birth.

 

[ktgrok]

The letter we got didn't say anything about percentage of income.

Sorry, I may have mispoken. But it says that you are not required to have insurance if the premiums would be more than 8% of your income. Anyone will be eligible to buy insurance through an exchange but only people in certain income brackets will get subsidies for the insurance. This is all in the future though.

[FaithManor]

I don't live in a county with a county hospital. It is a private one and it is the only one. And the one ambulance service is a private company. The company that owns the ambulance also owns the funeral home....ahhhh, small towns.

 

It costs a whole lot more than 800$ to take the ambulance for any reason. I have had to call the ambulance once in all the time I lived here and it was about 20 years ago (! where did the time go?) because a friend was unresponsive due to low blood sugar etc. It cost 1000$ for just the ride in the ambulance. And because they are a private company they don't accept insurance. You pay them and then you do battle with your insurance company to try to get reimbursed.

 

I am not arguing that a medics provide excellent medical care, I am more of a planned  homebirth with a certified nurse midwife type myself. I am in complete agreement that OBs are not necessary for a typical birth. I am just pointing out that for lots of poor women in my county (and others) calling an ambulance and having medics deliver is not an affordable option.

 

What I do see happening is that lots of them opt for an induced birth before their due date. The local hospital has an astonishing rate of induction. That way moms know they have a ride and their other kids are cared for etc. It is a reasonable choice to make given the options. However, induction and all the attendant cascade of interventions that typically follow raises the cost of the birth.

 

 

I wasn't stating that it was a good option or an affordable one. Just indicating what happens in our county when women can't get prenatal or delivery care because they do not have transportation to the one and only OBGYN office within a one hour drive that accepts Medicaid. It is far less than ideal for darn certain. But, that's the boat that underserved, low income, rural counties are in and if mom doesn't have transportation, she's up a crick. We don't even have a midwife in this county much less any of the closest surrounding counties.

 

It is what it is out here and will continue to be so long as it is not important in this nation to take care of people and where healthcare is nothing more than a profit driven commodity.

 

Faith