In January, I wrote a blog post detailing the sucky situation I found myself in having no maternity coverage on my parents insurance. ( If you have know idea what I'm talking about read the blog post) I can finally say I have an update on the situation! YAY (meaning I actually know what the heck we are doing!) Because of my previous blog post I have received so much advice on what to do this situation and so I thought I would pass along some of the things I have learned.
The most important lesson I learned is if you're planning on getting pregnant (or even if you're not) is to check and see if maternity is covered on your insurance. READ the fine print and call the right people you don't want to get stuck paying everything! Even if you have your own insurance you STILL may not have maternity coverage! Or you may have some but will cover the bare minimum or "complications due to pregnancy" but not pregnancy itself. Insurances seem to be finding loopholes since Obamacare as I've found out through reading other peoples similar problems online.
My friend just recently told me that she was double insured on her parents insurance and her husband's while being pregnant with her baby (which she just had and is SO adorable!) Because of her reading my story her mother and her decided to check and see if maternity was covered by her parents provider. They called about 6 people and they all said yes she was covered until she called another person who they then found out in fact SHE WAS NOT COVERED. Thank goodness she was on her husband's insurance otherwise she would have been stuck with so much to pay!
Most people that have given me advice told me to apply for Medicaid, which I can't qualify for. Sadly, because of the huge blessing of Luke's job and the fact we have a lot of assets for our age (house, multiple cars, etc) we couldn't qualify for any help like that!
We next tried to find secondary insurance like some people suggested but it was proving to be an impossible task. Apparently, when you already have insurance other insurance providers don't want to cover you.
I then just decided that I was going to go to a low cost clinic and just pay for everything upfront. In Brighton there is one called Salud each prenatal appointment was only going to cost $81 without insurance. This seemed a little bit more manageable compared to the doctor I was going to before that wanted $2000 each appointment!
By happenstance I talked to my friend whose brother had been involved in a program that helped people with anything insurance didn't cover. It is called the CIPC or Colorado Indigent Care Program. This not only covers any maternity medical bills that are not covered by insurance but any medical bills in general! (However, it should be noted the CIPC is only at certain doctors offices and hospitals) For a fact sheet to see if you qualify click HERE. Knowing this information will save us thousands of out of pocket costs.
Yesterday, we got everything set up with the financial services at Salud and it is now going to only cost a $40 copay to go to the doctor and I called the Platte Valley Hospital to see how much it would cost to deliver the baby there, it will only cost us $630! Although, they told me that price doesn't include anesthesiology but I want to have a natural birth anyway. Luke thinks I'm crazy. The nice thing too is that the CIPC will go back 90 days and cover any medical bills from that! (If only I had figured out what I was doing much sooner) But at least one doctor visit will have a deduction added to it! WOOT!
A TON of hospitals in Colorado take the CIPC so even if you don't want to go to a low cost clinic you can still save thousands by going to the hospital financial services and applying for it. You don't have to be in the same situation as me to get into it. It can help with any illness, surgery, tests or whatever else. The CIPC is good for a year! We even added Luke on it in case he gets sick or hurt. It's free and it saves you money so why not!? When the baby is born she will be able to be added onto it too.
Obviously, this mainly has to do with a Colorado program! But you can easily see what state program is available to you!
We're not totally out of the water yet but we're more wading instead of drowning! Thank you for all your prayers and advice it really has saved us and made me actually start being excited to be a mom!
Now I can't wait to hold my baby instead of dreading the bills!
