Hellobee Boards

Neither DH or I have insurance available to us through our jobs (small business for DH & I for a small family founded non-profit). G used to be on Medicaid (his dad is *supposed* to provide health coverage for him) but after finding out it would be taken out of any child support I received (which I don't receive much.. only if the irs intercepts a return which he rarely files) I stopped it. P was on it for her first year but no longer is.

I didn't really think of any other options after we let both of those go BUT I may look into the state insurance now (even if we qualified for the free Medicaid I'm not okay being on it).

Hmmm I was just looking at it we're still under the enrollment free income but would pay $5 co-pay/Rx/ER visit & $35 hospital co-pay.... Idk, even though we make under the enrollment fee income I just don't feel right having something we don't pay for... right?

@runsyellowlites: why would you feel bad? seems like it's the reason it's created! is P on any health care? If not, if god forbid something were to happen she could end up with a huge medical bill and you might not be able to pay it

@runsyellowlites: You do pay for it, through taxes. It's one of the major reasons we pay our taxes. I was uncomfortable getting help a few years ago, when I was suddenly a single parent. But, my mom pointed out that that's what it's there for.

@winniebee: @Mrs. Jacks: @Dandelion: @rachiecakes: @regberadaisy: Thanks ladies! Up until, idk about 6 months ago, both kids were covered (through medicaid not the chips program).... My issues were that despite it being paid for through our taxes I could have money taken from any child support I received from G's dad, which I felt was really wrong considering I shouldn't be the one short ended b/c he isn't responsible, and most providers here are very limited as to how many state ins (both medicaid & chips) patients they accept. Since we literally only ever go to the doctor for well child visits I just felt we could save for/allot for it & not worry about being limited on our provider. Given we're fixing to start going out of town for a doctor & have that added cost to our visits it would probably be much more beneficial to get them both enrolled.

@runsyellowlites: It makes sense for you to take advantage of it. I think of a situation like what if G broke his arm or something - it could be a 20K bill and coudl drive you into bankruptcy. Take advtange!

My LO is on MC Medicaid, and I love it! I used a family doc during my pregnancy, and she is also his doc now. DH and I have a PPO plan, but it's high deductible, so we were really glad that E qualified for Medicaid, just in case something were to happen. I was also on Pregnancy Medicaid while pregnant. It was (and is) such a relief to not have to worry about cost of treatment when deciding if we should take him to the doctor or not (luckily, he's never needed to go in, so far).

No state health care, we are on DH's insurance through his job.

She is for now. We will add her to my husbands insurance when he starts in June. It was significantly less expensive to enroll her in state insurance than add her to mine. We are in Vermont and the insurance is excellent. No co-pays, huge network... We are very happy with it. We may keep her on after he starts, but need to compare plans/costs

I researched it, but we do not qualify.

DS is on state insurance. We have a high-deductible plan and it would bury us in debt if something happened to E. With just the one income right now it seemed silly to not take advantage of the program (I mean that we qualify for it now and it's available, not that we're cheating the system). The HR rep at his company suggested it.

With the program we don't pay for prescriptions, pedi or specialist visits and our ER co-pay is like $10.

I don't think we'll qualify once I go back to work (he'll go on DH's ins) but for now it gives me great peace of mind to know we won't go into debt with medical bills if something happens.

This thread is so informative! I'm going to pass this on to friends of mine who are sure need this info soon.

No; LO (and my husband and I) are on an employer-sponsed health plan and we wouldn't qualify for any state programs.

I hope people who don't have insurance through their employer would take advantage of state or federal insurance programs, especially for their children. Medical bills bankrupt people every single day (even people *with* private insurance!), and if you don't have enough $$ to pay for out of pocket private insurance, you don't have enough $$ to cover some of those medical bills. My brother was in a freak accident in high school, in ICU for over a week and his medical bills were over 100k. Well over 100k (15 years ago!). Plus, I hate hearing that people don't take their kids to see a doctor/dentist/specialist as often as they want to or should because they are worried about the cost. Man, its your kids health - you shouldn't have to cut back on that because of a concern over money.

Yes, LO is currently on Medicaid. With me and DH being grad students, to put her on our student plans is ridiculously expensive (over $300 a month), so we initially applied to the state program. They came back to say we should apply to Medicaid first, and it turned out we qualified. I am super grateful that those programs are in place, otherwise things would be really tight (do-able, but tight).

LO is under my coverage at work.

DH and I are both on high deductible, PPO plans. Our employers pay our premiums, so we stay on separate plans because it makes more sense, financially. Our pregnancy and l&d will end up costing us a few thousand, when all is said and done.

We don't make a ton of money, but unfortunately, I did not qualify for Pregnancy Medicaid, and we are not within the income brackets to qualify for Healthy Families. However, our city offers Healthy Kids - a low deductible, low premium program for middle class families. If I return to work part-time, or decide to be a SAHM for the first year (this option is currently on the table), we will likely qualify for this program. We're waiting back on quotes to see how much it would cost to add LO to our Blue Shield plans through work, but I have a feeling, it's going to be very, very expensive, especially since it will up our deductible, and out of pocket maximums. Sigh.