Pregnant and Need Help!

Hi J.,
Lynn is right. You will qualify for pregnancy medicaid and you need to apply ASAP! It will take approx 4 weeks to become active but once it is, you won't have to pay a dime and it is well worth it.
My Husband is also self employed with his own fence company and makes too much for us to qualify for just regular medicaid, but I've never had any problems with pregnancy medicaid.
I'm now expecting my 3rd and on Medicaid. I go to Presby of Dallas and they have great doctors.
It's not just a medicaid clinic which is good. You really don't want a clinic that "only" accepts medicaid.

Send me a message if you have any questions.
Good Luck to you!

I was in the same situation when I got pregnant, my husband was self employed. We had no insurance and no insurance will cover pregnancy. You have to apply for what they call Pregnancy Medicad, do NOT apply for regular medicad because you will not qualify. You will qualify for Pregnancy medicad regardless of income it will cover you for your whole pregnancy plus 2 months afterwards. Also the baby will be covered for a whole year. Everything realated to your pregnancy will be covered. You need to have a prove of pregnancy test from your doctor and you will qualify. Just go down to the local office and fill out paperwork, I was accepted on the spot. I too thought we made too much but it did not matter due to the fact I was pregnant with no insurance benefits. I have also heard of women whos husband's made well over 6 figures who did not have insurance and qualified so income is not an issue with pregnancy medicad.

Our total bill with our licenced midwife was $2,200 & she let us pay it out. If you don't have any reason to go to a hospital (ie family history of childbirthing issues) then there is no reason to not go with a midwife. We had out child at home, so she waived the birthing center part of the bill which would have taken up to $4000 total. She has 3 doctors she works with incase anything goes wrong & she works with other midwives during the birth so both mother & child have someone on hand. My husband & I made the decision to not have out son in a hospital because pregnancy is not an illness. I only had blood drawn once. I opted for no sonogram as we would love him no matter what. The only other test I had was for gestational diabetes.
If you go with a midwife, be sure to ask what happens if it's twins,if something goes wrong, what medications she is autherized to give as well as what her qualifications are. Ours has her PHD in nursing & apprenticed for 8 years to do what she does. Be aware that there are some people out there that call themselves midwives because they know how to birth babies. Be safer with the ones that can do more than call 911 if something goes awry.

like someone else said, i think b/c you're pregnant you can get medicaid regardless of income. it will discontinue after you deliver, but for pregnancy and then your little one. please double check ...

now, are you averse to a birthing center? the one i use i think full-pay is about $3000 total w/out insurance and you make payments throughout your pregnancy. much cheaper than a hospital, though if you do indeed get medicaid, i doubt it'd cover a birth center.

where do you live? i know a wonderful ob/gyn thru medical city of dallas darryl jordan, and he accepts medicaid. i work w/him at planned parenthood and he's ob to lots of gals here and you'll just fall in love with him.

Hi J. congrats on your pregnancy. We are in the same boat with being self-employed. We have some fertility issues and have been trying to conceive #2 for four years.....long road. Anyway we were looking into a company that provides cheap insurance (they negotiate what you pay for you) it's called maternitycard.com or call 1-800-810-8871 I think it's a pretty good deal. I hope this helps. I don't know how you insure your other little ones but we use Atnea and pay about 108 a month. Not bad. Good Luck, would love to hear if it works our for y'all.
Jen

Hi J.,

Your husband should be able to get insurance for you and your family through NASE (National Association of Self Employed: nase.org). This association provides benefits for self-employed people, including insurance, travel benefits, law advice, accounting, etc. When I used them several years ago, I had United HC and it was less than $100 for medical, dental and vision (of course, I was single and 31, but BCBS was $99 for just health).

Good luck and congratulations!!
A.

My sister-in-law did not have insurance when she was pregnant. When you get a bill - call the company and tell them you do not have insurance and ask for a discount. She received a 20% discount on every bill because that is at least what the insurance companies automatically deduct before paying. All you have to do is ask. If you've already paid the $1000 for your sono and blood, I would ask for a refund on part of that - or give you a credit on future visits (because you will be back and use it eventually).

A couple of ladies at my church had babies without insurance and they went to Trinity Medical in Carrollton. I think they went there and talked to someone in their business office and got a total price for everything and then just made monthly payments. congrats!

Go to www.peopleshealthexpress.com to get more information and sign up. You will need to sign up for the Physician and Hospital benefit. I would also suggest you sign up for the prescription benefit for your meds. If you go to a participating provider, you will save money. I saw an unbelievable savings with the pharmacy card a couple of weeks ago. The nauseau during my pregnancies is extreme and my insurance company was giving me a hard time about paying for a full month supply of Zofran for the nausea. Kroger pharmacy is a participant and I was able to fill a 30 day supply for $108 instead of $1,202! Let me know how it goes and good luck.

I know that my Dr's office in Dallas at Presby Dallas has a payment plan for services for pregnancy. due by the time the baby comes and you can work out a plan. I like all the Dr's at the practice so anyone you go with would be great. the practice is Health Central Womens care at Presby Dallas the phone number is ###-###-####. I delivered all 3 of my boys with them (all high risk pregnancys with c-sections) contact me personally for my dr's name but like I said I would not hesitate to use anyone there. I will add that I also had considered using a midwife before I had my children and nothing against that idea because I also wanted that experience but if I had gone that route I would have lost my son and possibly my life due to unforseen complications durring delivery. I had an unplanned C-section becuase we could not get him out vaginally and my son still needed oxygen after birth for 5 hours. After that My second son also had complications so I never again thought about a midwife or birth center beause I had so many complications with childbirth that I would not have thought I would have had. but many people do fine with the birth center I just feel if there are any problems at least you are already at the hospital.

I could be wrong....but I think you qualify for medicaid regardless of income when you are pregnant. Call and ask!! I remember reading it here among other places.

Have you seriously considered using a midwife? I had one hospital birth and 2 with midwives. The experience is so different and wonderful compared to a hospital birth. I'll never go back. Its very inexpensive and very personal.