oh the joys of...

Insurance! ugh!

Shopping around for insurance is the crappiest thing ever! I am looking forward to future babies, when Nathan will have finished his degree, and have a real job with actual benefits and we will be on a group policy that includes maternity coverage!

Finding an individual policy that includes maternity- that doesn't cost like $600 a month or more- is pretty much impossible. Our current insurance is pretty affordable, and includes maternity....after a flippin' $12,000 deductible! Which, for those of you who don't know how much it costs to have a baby, basically means you don't have maternity coverage. The only way we'd even touch that deductible, is if there were complications during the pregnancy/delivery.

So, we've been shopping; and not the fun kind of shopping! In fact, I am not even going to call it "shopping around" for insurance insurance anymore. I am going to say "hunting." Hunting seems more appropriate- especially since this whole process makes me want to shoot something!

Anyway, HUNTING for insurance has been a pain! I, personally, think that an HSA is going to be the way to go. Paying cash out of our pocket, or rather, our HSA and getting cash discounts through the insurance network we are on. It's not cheap- but it's not outrageously expensive either. It's definitely do-able. We had a couple insurance reps come over and pitch us their association and HSA plan and I really like it- it makes sense to me- I think the price point is good... but Nathan decided he wants to keep looking. He doesn't like the thought of paying a monthly premium and then having to put money in the HSA on top of that. He wouldn't mind it so much- except he doesn't think we are ever going to reach our yearly deductible. If we did meet it though, everything from that point is covered 100%; it's not like 80/20 or whatever until you reach your out of pocket max.

So, Nathan is talking to some other insurance people that are going to present us with some other options, HMOs, PPOs, HSAs... none of which cover maternity- so we are still going to have to pay cash for the pregnancy. We just have to see if we would get the same kind of discounts-- I'm not sure I fully understand that part of it all yet- but the guy we were talking to about HSA that I like, said that because our HSA is part of the Cigna network that the hospital would give us a bigger cash discount? I guess that's just more research for us to do before we make our decision.

Oh, and my biggest annoyance with hunting for insurance- is having to talk to all the underwriters about my"pre-existing condition" that usually ends up with my kidneys not even being covered by insurance anyway. In fact, this HSA that we are looking into won't cover my urinary tract either! Who knew a couple kidney stones could be such a pain- even after they had passed! I don't think it would be such a big deal if I hadn't needed surgery for the one.

Will you look at all that insurance mumbo-jumbo I just spouted?! I know waaaaay more about insurance policies and terminology than I ever wanted to. I guess that's a good thing though. Better to learn about it and actually know what you are getting into, than to blindly sign a policy because some agent or broker or ad makes it sound like a great deal.

I'm sure this is not the last you will be hearing from me about this topic. It's not fun, and really not that interesting- but it's part of life- and a BIG part of growing our family.