Babies are a blessing! The medical bills that come with having a baby, however, can be completely overwhelming. All visits to a hospital are expensive, and every test, procedure, visit from a doctor, and day you stay adds to the expense. Ideally, your health insurance should help take care of many of the bills. What are your options if your health insurance won’t cover everything, or if you have no health insurance?
Unfortunately, few insurance companies are going to accept your application for health insurance while you are pregnant. Most of them consider pregnancy to be a pre-existing condition, and are unwilling to accept new customers whom they consider to already have medical issues. If they do accept you, they might expect you to pay a higher premium, or to put up with a waiting period before you can use the insurance. If you attempt to get health insurance while you are pregnant, and decide not to tell the insurance company about your pregnancy, you run the risk of having them refuse to pay for any of your pregnancy related medical bills. This can result in a mountain of debt.
What are your options if you are currently pregnant, and need health insurance? One option is to start saving up for the bills that will be piling up soon. There are also several different government programs that you might qualify for. The American Pregnancy Association has a list of great suggestions, as well as links to where you should begin seeking help from these sources. Medicaid is a program that can assist families, (and individuals), who have very low income with their medical care. If you do not qualify for Medicaid, you can try applying for Ameriplan. It is not health insurance. Instead, it gives a pregnant woman access to prenatal care, maternity care, and the health care that the baby will need after she is born, all for one low monthly price.
Even if you have health insurance, you might consider speaking with someone from the accounting or billing department at the hospital, and setting up a payment plan. They might have a sliding scale that they can use to set you up with a payment plan. It doesn’t hurt to ask! Many hospitals would rather get paid at a slower rate, than to not get paid at all. You might also consider speaking with a birthing center, to find out what they will charge you if you give birth there instead of in a hospital.