Friday, July 28, 2006

The $171,000 baby

Actually it's more....all I can say is thank God we're not one of the thousands in Texas with no health insurance (the state with the highest rate of uninsured or under-insured). The hospital sent us a summary of charges - of which insurance should pay almost 100%. Yup US$171,000! Ouch. And that's not even for the delivery, my stay, OR for any of the MDs' fees! Much of that is the machines used, and the 24/7 1-on-1 nursing care she was getting, the daily x-rays, the drugs....

An interesting twist I guess, as the insurance company, though they claimed to cover homebirth 100%, in fact didn't and we just paid for that in cash. So we were going to save them loads of money but in the end are costing them a lot.

She is of course worth every penny. But I shudder to think what would have happened if we didn't have insurance (and recall the few months I didn't have insurance in grad school and lived in constant fear of having an accident).

1 comment:

Dani said...

Hello. Just wanted to tell you congratulations on getting Angelina home. I found your blog through the google group and thought I'd check it out. We also had a NICU baby and I totally understand the scary cost. They're miracle babies and they deserve every cent. Congrats again and good luck with the money pit!

Dani
www.babymeehan.blogspot.com

 
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