Pregnant with No Insurance - McKinney,TX

You should definitely sign up for Obamacare. So many things can come up in pregnancy/labor/childbirth that could bankrupt you. The premiums should be relatively inexpensive for an individual.

Best wishes!

You have 6 days left to sign up for an Obamacare plan.

https://www.healthcare.gov

IMO would sign up for healthcare with affordable care act at healthcare.gov .
I would look for a BCBS (Blue Cross Blue Shield) PPO, and it will be accepted an the vast majority of doctors around here. I would also choose a plan with a lower deductible, because you know you'll be incurring beaucoup expenses due to the pregnancy and childbirth this year.

You M. think you'll be fine without insurance, but you do not want to pay for a emergency cesarean section and NICU care out of pocket. Even an regular delivery will cost over $10K. Why in the world wouldn't you pay a few hundred a month to avoid that bill?

The affordable care act means they can't refuse you insurance for being pregnant. Even though you don't qualify for medicaid you likely qualify for a discounted rate. The deadline is February 15 and your coverage would start March 1st.

Good luck and congratulations!

ETA: Frisco OB GYN is wonderful, but pretty far from you. I saw Dr. Meredith McIntire. I think you will have quite a bit of trouble finding a doctor's office that will take you without insurance, though.

I think you should repost this/edit it with your location in the title - you will be seen by far more people with a familiarity with your area.

Planned Parenthood centers often keep extensive referral lists too - contact your nearest one.

You should be signing up for insurance anyway, shouldn't you, under the ope enrollment period of the Affordable Care Act? I don't know how your state handles the health care connector but there should be a website that helps you. Do you have a regular primary care physician? Ask that person for a referral and explain the circumstances.

Good luck! Don't delay because you do want good prenatal care.

B.,

Look around for a midwife. Midwife deliveries and care are much cheaper than an obgyn. You only need an obgyn if you are a high risk pregnancy.

Good luck! C.

with the massive costs that 0bama(doesn't)care is, many practices are NOT taking 0bamacare.

Congrats on your baby!
Welcome to mamapedia!

I have never lived in Texas. I would ask my neighbors about what doctors they used and liked. Then start calling around and talking to them about a payment plan, etc. You'll also have to contact the hospital you plan on giving birth in to see what they can do for you.

If either of you are employed, check with your employer to find out how much insurance might cost you.

Good luck!

Congratulations on your pregnancy!

I don't live in Texas but I do work in healthcare(hmo-for long time) and both the hospital and obgyn are VERY expensive...and so aren't all the pedi visits(and those are all the well visits (never mind, God forbid...)

Look into getting something thru Obama care

Good luck

Almost all doctors will take cash. You pay for visits at the time of the visit, and the typical costs of a labor/delivery will be itemized and you will make payments between now and your due date.

Now that said, it may be cheaper to get insurance than it is to pay out of pocket for a normal L&D, plus the multiple appointments for routine care you will have for the baby in the first two years.

If anything goes wrong during the pregnancy or delivery, or if your child is special needs, you're looking at bills that can push you into bankruptcy.

Thanks to the ACA, pregnancy can no longer be used as an excuse for denying coverage.

You still have a few days of open enrollment through healthcare.gov which is probably your best bet for good rates.

If your husband is still young (under 30)? He should join the military.

All 4 of my kids were born on military bases. I had great pre-natal care.

There isn't a doctor here in Georgia that won't take cash! Most of them prefer it as it is a guaranteed payment.

I am self employed and there was no maternity coverage. You need to call several docs and just ask what their cash patient charges are. This is not an unusual situation. My doctor was Dr. Ali Toofanian out of Presbyterian Hospital. You will also need to check where the doctor will deliver and set up a payment plan with the hospital as well. I had good experiences with both. They were willing to work with me and didn't treat me any different because of my lack of coverage.

Blessings and congrats on your new baby.
L.

Get insurance. Our kids cost about $50,000 each. I believe we received 2 bills from the hospital - one for me & one for the child, about $25,000 each. Then there was the OB's bill. With insurance our co-pay to the OB was $50, and our co-pay to the hospital was $250 per patient. So we paid $550.

Get insurance.

Also if you don't sign up for afforadable healthcare by Feb 15th you could be penalized while doing taxes & charged fine by IRS, I believe.
www.healthcare.gov it will be cheaper in the long run for you & baby to get health insurance, God forbid something comes up during pregnancy or during birth plus you'll needinsurance for little one to get all the tests done that they need by pediatrician and if you'll want circumcision if babyis a boy. See if you qualify for FAMIS a form
of medicaid but if you make more $$.

I has my second while I was uninsured. My OB/GYN took a payment plan. I paid so much at each appointment with the understanding that it would be paid off by my seventh month along. It really wasn't too bad around $4000 total (seven years ago). This did not include if I needed a C-section there was an extra charge for that, but they told me the price up front so we would know what it would be. My one and only ultrasound was $300 and I had it around 20 weeks along.

I checked with the hospital upfront and told them we would be paying cash. That total was around $6000 not including my epidural that was around $800. They were actually quite nice as well and told me we could work out a payment plan. (once again the price was different if a C-section was involved).

Just call around and ask. I am sure most OBs would rather you make payments and get pre-natal care than just show up at the hospital in labor.

If you are close to San Antonio you can message me and I will share the practice I used with you.

Congratulations!!

I agree with everyone that you should purchase insurance rather than paying cash. I had prenatal care starting at 6 weeks pregnant, healthy pregnancy with no complications, and my son came 2 months early (31 weeks). They still don't know what caused his early delivery. He was in the NICU for 6 weeks and even with great insurance, we are out $12,000 (partly because he was born in December, so we had to meet out of pocket max for 2 calendar years, yay!). Thankfully we are good savers but the medical bills just keep coming and coming. I feel like every health professional associated with the hospital has sent us a bill.

I know another couple who had a healthy pregnancy, baby was born to term, but then had a rare genetic problem that presented the day after birth. He had a brain bleed and a seizure and spent a few weeks in the NICU. Not to mention the follow up care he has needed.

I hope you have a safe and healthy pregnancy, but you never know when things could become more complicated and therefore more expensive. Please create a safety net for your family just in case.