Quite the Racket

Buckle up, it’s going to be a bumpy ride....

So topics have been scarce recently. We’re kind of in a holding pattern until our doctor’s appointment next Friday when we should find out the sex of the baby...But then I walked to the mailbox today.

Tiffany is out of town for work until Thursday so I went ahead and opened an envelope from her doctor’s office. It was handwritten on the front so I wanted to see if it was something timely that I might need to address before she comes home.

Turns out it was timely and very informative. Please allow me to explain. I’ve gotten into this habit for pretty much my entire life of paying for services and goods after receiving those services and goods. Crazy!...I know. But as they say, you learn something new every day. Did you know you pay for the delivery of your child before the child is even born? Apparently, we owe in full by mid-August the cost of our physician’s services for the entire pregnancy and delivery. 

I’m going to try to stay away from exact dollar figures on this blog for the most part, but for those that have not experienced this, I’m going to share these figures so you can use them as a rough estimate. For the services of our physician, the bill is over $2,100. Now with our insurance, which covers 90%, the bill comes to $480 and change but that balance is due by 8/18. They say it can be paid in two monthly installments with the first due no later than 7/30...Call me crazy, but I don’t call it two “monthly” payments if the payments are due within 3 weeks of each other. ,

Anyway, this is just for the doctor, as they say in the fine print at the bottom of the bill. Hospital costs (can’t wait to see those) and any other costs, including the lab is EXTRA. Oh, and this is just for a run of the mill delivery. If Tiffany needs a C-Section, that’s an upgrade my friends, not included in this cost. But the best part is that if we would like to have our baby boy circumcised, that’s an extra $238  which is due ASAP. WE DON”T EVEN KNOW WHAT WE ARE HAVING YET....I used all caps there for emphasis in case you couldn’t tell.

So this is basically a deposit for what the minimum cost will be. Now while we don’t have a problem handling a sudden bill like this, I have to believe some people might. Also, I might be taking a huge leap here, but I meat A LOT of people now that have three, four, five kids and let’s just say they don’t have a lot of cash on hand. Who’s paying for these kid’s deliveries? I think I know someone who contributes and I saw him in the mirror this morning.

Don’t even get me started on the fact the doctor who we’ve seen for a total of 10 minutes so far gets paid over $2,100. I realize they have to kick some back to the office and staff, but still. Obviously we have insurance so it’s not a budget breaker, but it’s pretty hard to beat our insurance so a vast majority of the population must have some difficulty when it comes to paying bills like this that are unexpected.

I guess the alternative would be just to not have pre-natal visits,  not have insurance, go to the emergency room for delivery and then it would be free. Well, not really, it gets rolled into the cost for those that can pay. Good system, can’t wait to see all those savings from healthcare reform! (Note: Sarcasm)