Shady Grove & federal insurance

[Anonymous]

Hi,

My husband is a federal employee, we live in DC, and we're trying to think about how best to handle the upcoming open enrollment.

We currently have BCBS Basic. They're been great for coverage of all the testing so far at Shady Grove, but I know we don't get covered for actual treatment.

We're about to start IUI at Shady Grove and are planning to cover (at least some of) the costs of that with a flex spending account. However, if we aren't pregnant after a few IUI cycles, we'll likely shift to IVF early next year. We're both 35, so I think if we did the shared cost program, we'd likely be looking at $22500 (based on other posts on this site).

I've been reading a lot about the extreme cost of meds on top of the shared risk and was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on whether we should switch from BCBS Basic to something that might cover at least something of the meds in the IVF Cycles. (I've also seen the Aetna cost of birth posts, so not sure how that affects the overall calculus). We've had BCBS for years and are generally pretty happy with it. I also really like my OB and she's at MedStar, so I don't feel super willing to switch to the Kaiser network.

Any thoughts/advice appreciated!

[Anonymous]

Advice is don’t waste time and money on IUI.

[Anonymous]

OP do you know for sure that your insurance will cover some of the meds? I have MD insurance which covers IVF and even my plan didn’t cover all the meds.

[Anonymous]

Our insurance covers NONE of the meds and NONE of the treatment. Just trying to figure out if there's any federal plan for DC residents that covers something.