How to Plan for Homebirth, but Also Cover a Hospital Birth If Necessary

I'm sorry if this sounds harsh, but what you are describing is fraud. I am all for people who really need it accessing Medi-Cal and other public services, in fact, I think more eligible people should. But you are not eligible and it's really unfair to those who ARE and need those services to try and make yourself appear so. I would suggest that you strongly reconsider committing fraud, and purchase a high-deductible, low-premium health insurance plan in the event you need to go to the hospital to deliver your baby, and keep it until after you have delivered your baby.

Like many of the responses already, I agree that you should get health insurance for the remainder of your pregnancy. What you are thinking of doing is unethical. If you can afford health insurance, but you don't want to get it, I say shame on you. I don't normally like to be so blunt, but this is very important.

On the other hand, I'm very proud that you are considering a homebirth. Having a homebirth changed my life. It is the absolute most amazing thing I have ever done. I feel so empowered because of that decision. You must be prepared, though. I highly recommend taking Zann Erick's birthing class. It is a comprehensive class that will have you mentally prepared for your birth. I also highly recommend that you carefully choose your homebirth midwife. All midwives are calm, wonderful people, yet in my opinion, they are not all equally qualified. Check out their statistics, education, training, transfer rates, etc.

I wish you a complication-free pregnancy and birth.

Hi! Congratulations on your pregnancy!

I think you should go ahead and buy yourself some health insurance. You can always drop it after the birth if you wish. Even if you don't plan to use all the services a regular health plan would cover, you never know what might come up unexpectedly, and that's the purpose of insurance--you spend a lot to protect yourself against possibly having to spend even more! :)

Your best bet is to get health insurance. By law, pregnancy is not considered a pre-existing condition and so you can sign up for health insurance without any ramifications. You should have insurance so that you have pre-natal care so that you can ensure that you have a safe home birth.

AIM is great. When I discovered I was pregnant, my manager told me about AIM. It covers you during pregnancy and if you want it will cover the child until he or she turns 2. I think I paid $100 for one year. Since I had cesarian,my hospital stay was about 6 days. My bill came to close to $80,000 and was fully covered by AIM which I do believe has their program under Blue Cross. You also need to think about coverage for frequent check ups for the baby and those unpredictable sicknesses and medicine. Good luck with your search.

For homebirth midwives and resources (like childbirth prep classes specifically for homebirth--very important!) in the SF Bay area, check out the Bay Area Homebirth Collective (www.bayareahomebirth.org). Also you can look at recommendations for specific midwives on the Berkeley Parents Network. I had planned a homebirth but ended up having a c-section at the hospital, and then my baby had jaundice and needed extra care, so we were at the hospital almost 5 days & that all would have cost $50K; so I was very glad to have insurance covering that. Good luck with your homebirth; I loved having a midwife, & even though I delivered at the hospital, all the prenatal and postpartum care & training I received from her were invaluable.

Hi N.,
I'm actually a social Worker in SF, so I know the benefits pretty well...too bad about the timing on the health care thing, but CONGRATS on the pregnancy.
A great homebirth midwife is Jade Lotus Midwifery- you can google her. As far as the money/Medical thing...be careful with that in how you fill out paperwork, they will ask you about money transfers and savings and all...people do it all the time, but just be careful is all. They are pursuing fraud more readily these days due to the budget crisis.
That said, people with no insurance deliver babies all the time at SFGH- usually it's a planned hospital birth, but homebirths probably end up there sometimes too. They will just sign you up for either a "pickle program", which is esentially a payment plan for about 10% of the total cost, or have you apply for Medical to cover it. Often people who are not legal residents get something called Medical for Emergencies only that covers their labor/delivery.
Good luck!
-Wendy

N.,

I just had a successful (and amazing) homebirth. I don't know what options to offer you regarding 'emergency' hospital backup; however, I want to give you contact info for my midwife, Racha. Go to www.traditionalrootsmidwifery.com She has a wealth of information and resources. I wish you well during the remainder of your pregnancy and hope that the birth you envision is the brith you have.

Y.

Congradulations on your pregnancy! From a purely financial perspective you need some medical insurance. Most pregnancies end up with healthy moms and babies. But not all. Some problems show up during pregnancy, others during delivery, and others after delivery. These problems could finacially ruin you, if you don't have insurance. I heard somewhere that a leading cause of bankrupcy is medical expenses. The costs I have seen posted here are for more "normal" conditions/problems. The major compications can cost $500,000 to well over a million. Most likely you won't be facing that - without insurance you are playing financial russian roulet. Good luck!

You should get health insurance in case any problems arise & so then you have the coverage to pay for some or all of it. What about when you have the baby? They go to the doctor about 1x/month....are you planning on paying out of pocket for all that? That will get REALLY pricey & eat away at the inheritance you have saved up. Again, if something serious happens (God forbid) insurance will help cover the costs.

Just be careful. In the state of california you can actually have CPS come take your baby if you don't get prenatal care. Stupid, i know, but it's one of our laws.

Good luck with your homebirth. I would still tour your local hospital to be on the up and up just in case. Also, you don't have to do everything that they want to. You can set it up with your doctor (or the hospital) for what you want. Maybe try contacting Anthem Blue Cross.. they would be pretty good for an emergency situation