Pregnant Without Insurance or a Job. Please Help Advise Me

I'm an insurance agent and fully understand how these things work within the medical profession. First EVERYTHING in healthcare in negotiable and almost every hospital offers a cash price for child birth. In many cases it is cheeper to have a child without insurance than with, providing there are no complications. That cash rate in the DFW area today is between $3800.00 and $5600.00 depending on the hospital. As far as insurance in concerned, there is no company other that a group plan that you could be insured on since your already pregnant. Now saying that there is a company out of New York who offers a maternity indemnity plan that pays you cash while in the hospital for your deliver as well as the medicare rate that the hospital accepts for their charges, between those two features it almost covers the entire delivery, it cost about $270 monthly. I hope this information helps and may God Bless you and your family aboundantly.

2 moms found this helpful

Hi A.,

Congratulations on your pregnancy! Does the organization that you are missionaries for not offer any type of insurance plan? If not you can look at Medicad or I know a guy that you can talk to about insurance as well. With Medicad you will have to get a pregnancy test performed by a Dr. or Nurse to verify your pregnant. I volunteer at the Dallas Pregnancy Resource Center and we do offer Free pregnancy test for verification for medicad. This is just one of the resources that we offer. I know you want to check out all your options. Greg Hammons is who I would recommend talking to about insurance. His number is ###-###-####. If you call him please tell him I gave you his name. If you have any questions you can email me at ____@____.com

Thank you for sharing God's message to the world.

M. D.

1 mom found this helpful

A.,

First -- I can imagine how overwhelming this can all feel. This child will bless you in many ways though and the Lord knew what was going on in your life when he decided to bless you with a child.

Individual health carriers really don't offer maternity coverage any more. Even if you found one that did, it wouldn't cover an existing pregnancy that occured before the coverage began.

I would suggest you or your husband get traditional employment. Those policies WILL cover maternity. Not sure of your missionary status but one of your sponsoring churches may be able to add you as an employee and you could get covered through them. If that is not an option, that getting a job in the workplace would be the option here in the states. Perhaps this is God leading into some other area at this time in your life. I do have friends who are missionaries in Thailand. Not sure what part of Asia you are in but I know they would offer info on options there if that is helpful to you. If so, please email me at ____@____.com and I'll get you their contact info. Good luck to you! We'll pray for God to provide for you and your family -- especially some peace!

1 mom found this helpful

As someone who previously went through this not long ago, I know you may not like it, but your best option is Medicaid. THEY HAVE NO CHOICE EXCEPT TO COVER YOU BECAUSE TRADITIONAL INSURANCE WILL NOT TOUCH YOU. They will cover all your Dr. visits, any procedures, labor and delivery, and they will cover the baby for at leaset one year after the birth. They will also cover you for your visit to the OB for your follow up after you have the bay.
Most traditional insurance will not touch you as it is too expensive to take on a pregnant patient. I found out the hard way that the sales person may tell you they will, but you wont find out untill far too late that they are not going to cover any of it. I have also volunteered with the Dallas Pregnancy Resource Center, if you need any further assitance or need more questions answered or just need to talk, you can call me on my cell at ###-###-####

1 mom found this helpful

I'm not sure about insurance, but if you chose to have a homebirth or a birth in a free-standing birth center with a midwife attending, your costs would be significantly lower. I had my baby at the allen birthing center and had a fabulous experience. www.allenbirthingcenter.com

If you have any more questions about using a midwife, let me know. I would be happy to talk more about it.

I had my daughter at Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. It's at Walnut Hill & I75. They have a wonderful clinic, women's facility with private birthing rooms and a social worker on site to help with all the Medicaid paper work and whatever else you need. This was 13 years ago, but I'm sure they still provide the same quality service. Good luck and congratulations!

You should be able to get Mediciad for pregnancy, which will cover all of your prenatal, birth and postnatal as well as the baby's medical for one year.

Being on Medicaid does NOT mean you have to go to Parkland or a nasty clinic. You can get a great doctor, fabulous care, and deliver at a good hospital. I don't think you even need to go to the Medicaid office for an appt if you're applying for Medicaid. Simply mail or fax your app along with a copy of your photo ID or birth certificate (both sides), proof of income (if any) and proof of pregnancy (Planned Parenthood will do a pregnancy test for about $40 and give a paper stating that you are pregnancy). When/if you're approved you'll receive a packet with instructions for choosing a plan & an OB; there are several plans from which to choose, each with a booklet describing the services for which you'll be approved and a list of doctors who accept the plan. Lots of doctors are listed; some will require you to be approved by their office, so make sure the doctor willa accept you before you fill out the Medicaid papers listing that OB as yours. Make sense?

yourtexasbenefits.com

The link above will allow you to print an application or have one mailed to you.

Good luck!

Congratulations! You have gotten som good advice too from what I have seen. I know that you can also call and find out how much it would cost to get prenatal care and what the delivery and post would be. Most drs and hospitals will give you an idea and it will be different than what an insurance will be. They usually charge more to the insurance so that they get paid. They can offer you payment plans as well. They are usually helpful if you are doing it ahead and planning. I would start with what hospital you want and doctor. I have had to this before because we weren't sure if we were going to have insurance. I also had a friend who did do that. It was helpful because they could budget it in. You can also look into free clinics around the area too. Planned parenthood can help too. They have resources and know where to send you to get the care you need. Good Luck!

Congratulations! You might also contact Parkland Hospital in Dallas. They would be able to help you with information about services for uninsured moms. They have social services programs available.

Make sure and take those prenatal vitamins!

I delivered my second child at The Birth and Women's Center on Swiss Ave. The prenatal care was so much better than I got at a Dr. with my first. The price of the delivery was much, much less. All in all it turned out great.

I used a mid-wife for my last two children and gave birth at home. The cost is much more reasonable than having a baby in the hospital and the experience is wonderful. My midwife is Kathleen Mayorga and I think her website is www.bellabirths.com

http://www.dallasmidwife.com/

Dinah Waranch was the midwife in charge of my care for both my pregnancies. (My first was a twin birth and the second was just a singleton.) She accepts Medicaid as well as cash.