Maternity Coverage - Columbus,OH

My husband is self employed so we have to buy our health insurance. We got maternity and had all four of us covered with a $5000 ded for $400 a month with Aultcare (AultOne). I don't know where you live but if it is close to Canton that is going to be your best bet-we looked everywhere. They have a maternity rider that you have to buy-but no waiting period. I think that is an extra $175 a month. Hope that helps.

You should be able to find suitable maternity coverage. I've not heard of year long waiting period before you'd be covered for maternity. I always thought that as long as you weren't pregnant when you applied for the coverage, you'd qualify. Either way, I'd do some reasearch and see what else is out there. A lot of insurers offer "major medical coverage" policies. That would be something good for you to have either way - if you were in a car accident with no coverage, can you imagine the financial situation you and your family would be in? Recently, I purchased for our family a short-term, major medical (meaning all doctor visits are paid for out of my pocket) policy from Anthem (my husband is between insurances) and there are lots of options out there. I'd get online and see what you can find. Unless the laws and regulations have changed drastically, you should be able to find something out there.

I hope I offered you something. Good luck.

H.:

I know that any insurance company, by law, is required to cover you if you are pregnant. Also - you may want to try to either get on your husband's insurance policy (a change in family is how you can do that - i.e. having another child) or even yet you can find some insurance plans, under companies like Aetna, United HealthCare, and Human for example that you can not be required to work - you can just pay them a monthly fee.

Hope that helps!
K.

I had the same problem, we had insurance (we are self employed) but Maternity was not offered. If you are close to Bethesda North, they do have a program for under insured. I chose to stay with my OB who did not go to B North. She delivers at Christ, I called the finance dept there and was able to work out a deal if I started payments (I was two months into my pregancy), I also asked my OB if they could discount any of the fees, they did and again, I made payments during my pregnancy and was paid up before the baby was born.
I guess I didn't want the insurance issue to get in the way of planning my family. My child was covered once born, you can also leave the hospital early if you feel up to it. Best of luck

I personally don't know how it works, but I had a friend who used used maternity card. www.maternitycard.com I believe. It doesn't cover all of the expenses, but is pretty comparable to having insurance coverage from what she explained to me

Hello H.. You had so many responses that I didn't read all of them, so I apologize if I am repeating what someone else already said. My husband has Medical Mutual through work. His ins started covering in July and our baby was born in August, they covered EVERYTHING from the minute his ins took effect. Pregnancy was NOT a pre-exsisting condition. When I was working my ins started covering pregnancy care as soon as my ins took effect (I was already pregnant). It depends on the ins company. Also, I am wondering why you aren't covered under your husbands ins? If you return to State Employment, it seems that you would have Medical Mutual, State Employees in my area have that ins. If you would have MM ins you could just call thier 800 # and ask them about pregnancy coverage. Honestly, in today's society most pregnancies are not pre-planned. Or you could start saving up the $ now for coverage (generally $5,000 in my area) and most Drs will do a payment plan. I say don't let the ins companies dictact your future! Best of Luck!

Hi H.!

When I was pregnant with my son, I had just started a new job and insurance wouldn't kick in for 90 days. I was already into my second trimester. So I applied for Healthy Start. It's medicaid which applies only to pregnant/nursing mothers and children up to age 5. They stop covering the mother after the 6 week check up with the ob. But continue coverage for the baby. I was approved.

It's based on income. So I'm not sure if you'd qualify or not, but maybe it's worth checking out? I know a woman I worked with who was married, both of them with full time jobs, with 3 kids, and she had gotten approved. So you never know. You don't have to meet with a case worker or anything. You just apply. Then you get to pick who your plan goes through, like Care Source or Anthem. I chose Anthem. Good luck!

hello- i think you should check into healthy start/health families. it is a government insurance. i was married with one daughter and i qualified. it is based on income,but the standards to obtain are very reasonable. they cover everything, including co-payments that your daughter has from her private insurance. i now have 3 children, a great husband, private insurance and my children have the healthy start! it is such a great help to us. another good thing, i believe, you can do all application through the mail. call ###-###-#### to find out more info! best of luck!

Hello! I have a friend who is a health insurance agent. She works for United American and told me that they offer a Maternity plan for women. If you would like to get in touch with her to find out if the company she works for has a plan that is affordable to you, you can contact her at ###-###-####. (Her name is Crissy Dauer.) Another possibility would be looking into the various maternity clinics that some hospitals offer to offset the cost. Good luck!

I just had a baby in Nov. & had the same problem. I found out that I was pregnant the same day that my husband started a new job & wouldn't have insurance for 6 months. Through the hospital, Riverside, I learned about Caresource. The only problem I had, which was my own doing, was that I stayed with Riverside Community Medicine. I was not happy with most of the nurses or most of the doctors during the prenatal. During delivery, I couldn't be happier. I got lucky with the doctor at delivery. But, since I didn't have insurance, I stayed with them even after getting it. However, some doctors take Caresource anyway. There is an application process. It is all about income. I was doing in home daycare & not making much, & my husband just started a new job. As the mom, I was covered also. Everything was paid in full. I talked to someone in the financial aid office. I would think that even your regular OB might have some info.

Hi, I went and got a job at hospital and work two days a week and receive insurance, it is really good insurance. Insurance is getting more and more expensive though. I would see if maybe you could go part time or job share. State benefits are awesome. Some day you might wish you still did when are are getting closer to retirement. Just something to think about. Also there are midwives that do homebirth. They will work out a payment plan. Actually Miami Valley will too. If you have any more questions please email.

jo

Have you looked into how much it would be if you were covered under your husbands plan? Sometimes not all the time it is the same cost as it is for your daughter to be on the plan, Family Coverage. That way you don't have to look for a day care to take your daughter while you work. If the cost is $10 more per month I would think that would be worth it just to have the coverage. My husbands plan is that way under a family plan is actually cheaper than to have employee plus 1 and the family plan covers everyone no matter how many are in the family, at least that is the way my husband's is set up. My sister in law worked for the government also and was contemplating the same thing. She decided it is worth it to go under my brothers plan than to try an go back to work for the insurance.

Just some thoughts.

There are a lot of companies out there (Chase and Discover come to mind) who offer health insurance from (I believe) day 1. It's not very common to find a major corp. making someone wait a year for insurance. If, though, you don't want to work full-time, your only other 2 options is to get on your husband's health insurance, or, see if you qualify for Medicaid. If you go to their site, or Ohio Jobs and Family Services, they will tell you the maximum amount of income in order to qualify.

Actually, if you go back, once your insurance kicks in, you are usually covered for maternity. Or you can look into clinics near you that base their maternity care on income levels. You may also look into being covered under your husbands policy and working from home some way. good luck!!

You are correct. My husband is a health insurance agent and once you are approved for the insurance there is a waiting period before they cover it. I will ask him if he has any suggestions.

Blessings.
M.

I was reading through the posts and just a piece of advice when looking for maternity coverage. Someone had mentioned Maternity Card. I too did not have insurance when I found out I was pregnant. I looked everywhere for possibilities and came across their website. It seemed like a good idea, that they'd save me money on hospital bills, etc. How it works: you receive the bill from your doctor/hospital, you then send it to Maternity Card, and they negotiate with the doctor/hospital on a discounted price. Honestly, the discounts weren't that much (anywhere from 5-15% of the bill). Here's the deal though, it was like $200 just to join, $200 for the first month, and then like $70/month for 12 months. I regret joining. I found out that if I had talked to the doctor's office and hospital some more beforehand, they offer even bigger discounts when it comes to self-pay patients (which is what we did for the delivery). Hope this helps.

Honestly ther isn't anything you can do unless you qualify for government assistance like medicaid. I was in the same boat with my last one who is now 1 and I went all the way to cinci (I live in dayton) to a clinic there that charges like $2000 regardless of income and it covers all 9 months, delivery at Bethesda hospital and your 6 week check and any tests you need done. I guess if you live really close then it isn't bad though!