I delivered with MCA at Shady Grove in 2010, and while I had insurance, the hospital mistakenly billed us for the full cost of L&D (which we later had corrected). That bill was around $10K, so still a lot but significantly less than your quoted rate of $25-40K at Sibley. Just something to consider.

(This was for a relatively uncomplicated birth, no epidural but with pitocin - no idea how the drugs change the cost.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My very rough understanding of Affordable Care Act is that next year all insurance plans must include maternity coverage. When is your due date, 2013 or 2014?

2014 due dates would only be 2-3 weeks pregnant right now

Well she did JUST found out

Right, but unless she had an IUI or something, she wouldn't of even had a missed period yet. Anyway...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My very rough understanding of Affordable Care Act is that next year all insurance plans must include maternity coverage. When is your due date, 2013 or 2014?

2014 due dates would only be 2-3 weeks pregnant right now

Well she did JUST found out

Anonymous wrote:My very rough understanding of Affordable Care Act is that next year all insurance plans must include maternity coverage. When is your due date, 2013 or 2014?

2014 due dates would only be 2-3 weeks pregnant right now

Anonymous wrote:No advice here.... just sympathy. How is this even legal with the Affordable Care Act? Sigh...insurance companies suck. So sorry you have to deal with the stress of this while pregnant. Hopefully you will get some good answers here.

I wonder this, too.

My very rough understanding of Affordable Care Act is that next year all insurance plans must include maternity coverage. When is your due date, 2013 or 2014?

No advice here.... just sympathy. How is this even legal with the Affordable Care Act? Sigh...insurance companies suck. So sorry you have to deal with the stress of this while pregnant. Hopefully you will get some good answers here.

OP, I have the same sort of plan with BCBS except we did add on the extended maternity coverage. It was my understanding, however, that even without the additional coverage, Carefirst will cover a large part of the L&D costs, even if they're not covering the regular prenatal visits and tests. It's worth checking into...maybe get it in writing, though, since the people answering their phones don't know anything about anything.

On another note, I'm sorry that you're going through this at an otherwise happy time. Carefirst's wording in their policies is pretty misleading regarding "standard" maternity coverage, and I'm sure a lot of people have found themselves in this same situation because of it.

what a nightmare, I am so sorry. what do people without insurance do? have you looked at Kaiser Permanente?

Anonymous wrote:She's not pregnant, but I will be looking into changing plans just in case.

Why don't you look into some birth control instead?

I'm sorry this has happened. I hope you get some good advice here.

I have the same concerns, but for my 16-year-old daughter. She has a separate insurance policy than I do because my employer doesn't pay for dependents. I got her CareFirst policy when she was 8 thinking why in the world would I pay for maternity benefits? She's not pregnant, but I will be looking into changing plans just in case.

If you're healthy and low risk, you might consider an out of hospital birth with a midwife. The global maternity fee in the DC area (includes prenatal, birth, and postpartum visits) is between $3,000-5,000 depending on the midwife. A complete list can be found here: http://www.birthoptionsalliance.org/midwives.html

Any chance you could get access to a group plan, either a new job for yourself or your spouse/partner?

A birth center or home birth would be less expensive, unless of course you end up transferring to the hospital.

Try a home birth midwife, or Birthcare, or DC family health and birth center.

I am a new mom and found out after I was pregnant that my very expensive monthly PPO with BCBS covers nothing related to maternity. I am self employed so chose this plan for myself 6 years ago and clearly incorrectly assumed maternity was covered. Does anyone have any suggestions for alternatives, local birthing centers, etc that may be less expensive than the roughly 25-40K in costs for paying out of pocket at Sibley.