A Decision is Made, Part 1

I went to the baby Dr almost four weeks ago and got the shock of my life.  We had never discussed financial arrangements before and I assumed it would be like other doctors: they provide service, the insurance and/or flexible spending pays out then we are responsible for the rest. 

"Oh no, no!" says this financial lady who was oh so nice until the money came into discussion.  "We require you to pay the entire $3500 fee before you are 32 weeks pregnant."  What??

Turns out that because our baby is due in late January we are responsible for the ENTIRE deductible before the insurance picks anything up.  Hubbers thought he was doing good when he picked the insurance he thought was best for the family and included a health fund.  What he did realize is that the deductible is a whopping $3000!  Before the insurance even considers picking up the remaining 80% of the fees.  As long as they are in contract.  And not on the "nuh-uh" list that seems to expand faster than I wash socks.

Also turns out that the Dr/Midwives I picked are in a college town and lots of those irresponsible breeding like rabbits couples take off without paying for their deliveries and services.  I pointed out to the lady that we have good insurance, a good health fund AND flexible spending, not to mention we have five kids already and have lived in the area for 13 years.  Our flight risk was and is negligible. 

The demon lady at the financial office told me that I would be required to pay $800 every visit until 32 weeks to pay the required amount due before they would consent to delivering my baby.  Excuse me?  Remember those 5 kids?  And that I'm a stay home mom?  Yeah.  She wasn't impressed.

I left the office completely stunned and unsure what was the right thing to do.  The financial office told me to get a loan to pay IN ADVANCE for their services.  We don't live on credit and don't incur debt.  After seeking advice from our financial advisor we concluded that these people were deluded and no doctor should expect advance payment for delivering a baby!!

I called the Dr that had delivered my last child, a natural VBAC birth, and scheduled an appointment with them.  We have a history of paying on time and in full, so no problem.  Then I set to reading.

I ran across a statement in a book.  It said something along the lines of "I made a pretend decision to have a homebirth and then lived with it for a while."  And it set me to thinking.  Why not homebirth?  Two friends of mine had recently had homebirths with a local midwife and why couldn't I?  Poor Hubbers was out of town on this momentus weekend and I deluged him with texts about this idea.  He's such a good man that he agreed to think and talk about it with me when he returned home.

All that weekend I did lots of reading on the internet and from the outdated local library stash and had already decided before Hubs made it home that I wanted a homebirth.

To Be Continued...