[bmorgan24]

I currently do not have any health Insurance, I'm already pregnant and need coverage. Can anyone suggest an insurance company to through? Do I need a PPO plan to cover my pregnancy?

[purelegance]

if you were to buy regular insurance today, you still won't be covered. (by regular, i mean blue cross blue shield, aetna, etc). the only way to get maternity care covered immediatly is either through job benefits or through state health insurance (medicaid/medicare .. forgive me, i don't remember which it is) - but be careful, they denied me because i "had insurance" (my insurance did not cover maternity care). There's also some sort of insurance out there called maternitycard ? i've seen a few advertisements for it (from reliable places. dr's office, etc). they called me, but by the time i found out about them, DH had already found a new job with insurance benefits. HTH & good luck!

[mrs_ray]

I think the curent Fit Pregnancy magazine has a maternity card ad in it right now. Go to the store and find that magazine and browse through it. You might even be able to find info by using google.

[bmorgan24]

I found info on the Maternitycard, I think you can only recieve it if you don't qualify for medicaid. For some reason medicaid is scary to me, I've heard the doctors treat you badly. Has anyone used it before?

[purelegance]

Originally Posted by bmorgan24

I found info on the Maternitycard, I think you can only recieve it if you don't qualify for medicaid. For some reason medicaid is scary to me, I've heard the doctors treat you badly. Has anyone used it before?

i've never heard that before, but i guess it really depends on your area. Here, all OBs accept medicaid, so you choose your doctor.

[QueenAngie]

Bmorgan, congrats!

Medicaid is not a scary insurance.

You need healthcare insurance and so will your baby, so just enroll.

http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MedicaidGenInfo/

Do not know your income level, so you may also qualify for WIC,
which is another great program.

[bmorgan24]

Than you Angie for the link! I will def. check into it!

[mrs_ray]

I've never heard of doctors being rude to you if you're on medicade/medicare. My sister is on Ohio's program called CareSource and it covers EVERYTHING. She doesn't even have to pay a co-pay. They picked up everything she that Anthem didn't cover when she had her daughter.

If you're unmarried it's a LOT easier to get this sort of assistance. To them you're now a family of two. You'll probably need a pregnancy statement, which is basically a paper saying you're pregnant from any medical facility (you can even get one at planned parenthood if you don't mind going in there for a pregnancy test -- to be on the same side just let them know you're confirming what an hpt said and that you have no intentions of terminating before they take the test so things don't get awkward with the list of "options".)

I believe you have to have an income before taxes less than $1,600.00 a month in Ohio to qualify if you are pregnant, have no other children and are not married. I'm not sure if it varies from state to state.
WIC is also a great program is you're living frugally. They can help you with food during pregnancy, food while breast feeding and provide you with free formula if you're not breast feeding (they still provided my sister with food even though she was only formula feeding). When baby gets older they also provide rice cereals, juice and other things for baby to eat. I know for my sister just for her they gave her milk, cheese, eggs, cereal.. All of this is vouchers so you can pick what you want as long as it is in the guidelines of the laminated picture gude they provide you with.

Best wishes and congratulations on your pregnancy!

[mrs_ray]

P.S. - if your astate has a program like CareSource it'll also cover your dental cleanings which you'll need during pregnancy because of common gum problems that may arrise.

[MissyChrissy]

Medicaid coverage does vary state to state...by a lot of things. I'd say, if you're in NY, avoid it. They'll sue you years later to make you pay the bill back. Believe me...they do.

They're not supposed to, but sometimes patients with Medicaid do get treated differently. I've heard about it before, and I suspect I was a victim of it myself years ago...but I was so young I didn't realize what was going on. It was a crappy hospital anyway.

If I had it to do over, I would have simply made payment arrangements with the hospital. If they got out of hand, I could have filed bankrupt. I'd do THAT before getting Medicaid in NY again.