The Vent Part Quatre

[CBM 14]

Why is having a baby so expensive in the US? I'm not pregnant yet, but we would like to have a baby in the next year or two... our insurance has a $4,000 deductible ... free pre-natal care, but a $4,000 delivery. I know it's not THAT much in the grand scheme of things, but I would rather save the money for the baby's education fund. Or mass amounts of Ketchup chips next time I go back to Canada. Whichever....

[Ontarkie 14,221]

Why is having a baby so expensive in the US? I'm not pregnant yet, but we would like to have a baby in the next year or two... our insurance has a $4,000 deductible ... free pre-natal care, but a $4,000 delivery. I know it's not THAT much in the grand scheme of things, but I would rather save the money for the baby's education fund. Or mass amounts of Ketchup chips next time I go back to Canada. Whichever....

We still haven't gotten the bill from the hospital, we have to pay 20% but what that will amount to I have no clue. My husband is not worried about it but I am thinking the worse. We didn't have to pay the hospital's co-pay cause I did this mommy to be program, it was just answer some questions and send in the forms was a nice way to save 250$. My Ob clinic make you prepay for their service and it looks like they will owe us money which is nice but I wish we didn't have to pay to begin with. I would of much rather get mass amounts of ketchup chips, and wonder bars with all that money too.

[Colleens 40]

I think our insurance covered 80% of the delivery as well and our bill was about $2200. I had an induction and an epidural so those cost a little bit more, but I only stayed in the hospital one night....which saved some money.

CBM, I am not sure if it is an option for you, but if you chose to go with a midwife they can be subtantially cheaper than going the traditional OB/hospital route. Most are affiliated with a hospital so if something happens to not be going right, you are going to get the care you require. Some hospitals even employ midwives so that parents have an option.

[Ban Hammer 13,334]

has timbits thanks to kathryn!

my rant: there's not a tim horton's close by

[Ban Hammer 13,334]

bad news - baby boy likes timbits too.

he took a bite of one and said "mmmhhhmmmm!"

this is a hint: i need reinforcements!

[Canadiandggal 49]

Why is having a baby so expensive in the US? I'm not pregnant yet, but we would like to have a baby in the next year or two... our insurance has a $4,000 deductible ... free pre-natal care, but a $4,000 delivery. I know it's not THAT much in the grand scheme of things, but I would rather save the money for the baby's education fund. Or mass amounts of Ketchup chips next time I go back to Canada. Whichever....

LOL I was sitting here thinking about that the other day.... Our insurance covers 80 percent. so we really will only pay 20 percent of the hospital bills but it will end up being pretty damn high. Of course I will also owe my damn Ob as well, she is not allowed to bill my insurance till the ending... Our family deductible is something like 1500 but Our OUT of pocket expense is something like 3000-6000 thousand. Are you sure its not your out of pocket your talking about?

I cannot believe that i want to do this at least one or two more times,,,,,what is wrong with me lol

[Ontarkie 14,221]

bad news - baby boy likes timbits too.

he took a bite of one and said "mmmhhhmmmm!"

this is a hint: i need reinforcements!

Baby boy has good taste

When my parents came down here in April they brought my kids 2 dozen donut and timbits, they also brought a dozen plain donut for my older dog she like them and its a treat my dad always gave her when he would come visit when we were back home so he had to bring her some too.

My vent is my mouse is not working and I don't have a spare one and can't switch it off the other computer cause it wont work on mine so I'm stuck with using the crappy comp.

[Ontarkie 14,221]

LOL I was sitting here thinking about that the other day.... Our insurance covers 80 percent. so we really will only pay 20 percent of the hospital bills but it will end up being pretty damn high. Of course I will also owe my damn Ob as well, she is not allowed to bill my insurance till the ending... Our family deductible is something like 1500 but Our OUT of pocket expense is something like 3000-6000 thousand. Are you sure its not your out of pocket your talking about?

I cannot believe that i want to do this at least one or two more times,,,,,what is wrong with me lol

We just got the insurances break down of the hospitals bill for the Alexis and mine together its about 900$ I was expecting it to be alot worse. And the doctor was payed in advance and we over paid so they sent us a check for about 300$.

[CBM 14]

It's hard enough being in a country with very few friends and no family (not even in-laws)... I just wish I could get someone to take my degrees seriously without jumping through 90000 more hoops.

I just received my EAD last week, and I've been applying for jobs and writing cover letters, etc. I just shelled out over $200 to get my degrees and teaching license evaluated, so California can decide if I'm educated enough to receive a CA teaching license. I know this is a feeling of frustration that everyone must have felt at first, so I know I'm not the only one out there... it's just so exasperating! I paid a lot of money for a high quality education, and now I'm back at square one, pleading with people to take me seriously.

I love kids and I love teaching. And I know I just started applying, and don't expect to find something right away... it's just a feeling of hopelessness that someone would rather have an American educated person teaching in their schools.

I think more than anything, I'm starting to experience that dismal feeling you all express time and again, of missing how easy life in Canada was. I love my husband more than anything and I do love California... I'm just frustrated.

Phew. End of rant.

[Colleens 40]

So back in Jan my husband and I were in a very minor car accident. We were stopped behind someone at a stop light, and hubby thought the light had changed and started rolling forward and ended up rear-ending the vehicle. There was a bit of damage to my car (more due to the fact that we hit a SUV so it hit kinda under their bumper). Since we were stopped and not even a car lenght behing them it would have been near impossible to be going more than about 10km/h. The airbags did not deploy on either vehicle either. We have just recieved 2 lawsuits from 2 of the passangers in the vehicle...one for $275 000 and the other for $235 000 they are claiming that they can no longer work, earn a living or have quality of life because of this accident!!!! I have been hit in the exact same situation a couple of times before (and a couple of times much harder) and I couldn't even imagine how they can claim they have the injuries they have.

Why are americans so sue happy??? I never really paid attention to what insurance coverage my husband had, and I was just added onto his policy and we don't have the best coverage (I am to blame since I should have looked into this more) so I am getting pretty stressed out that if they don't reach a settlement and it goes to trial we may be up the creek. We are struggling to make ends meet as it is, and this is definitley one more stressor that we did not need

[Ontarkie 14,221]

Oh Colleens I'm sorry you are having such rotten luck lately hopefully things will settle down soon. I'm guessing the insurance companies are involved. Hopefully they settle this soon.

[SapphireDreams 71]

So back in Jan my husband and I were in a very minor car accident. We were stopped behind someone at a stop light, and hubby thought the light had changed and started rolling forward and ended up rear-ending the vehicle. There was a bit of damage to my car (more due to the fact that we hit a SUV so it hit kinda under their bumper). Since we were stopped and not even a car lenght behing them it would have been near impossible to be going more than about 10km/h. The airbags did not deploy on either vehicle either. We have just recieved 2 lawsuits from 2 of the passangers in the vehicle...one for $275 000 and the other for $235 000 they are claiming that they can no longer work, earn a living or have quality of life because of this accident!!!! I have been hit in the exact same situation a couple of times before (and a couple of times much harder) and I couldn't even imagine how they can claim they have the injuries they have.

Why are americans so sue happy??? I never really paid attention to what insurance coverage my husband had, and I was just added onto his policy and we don't have the best coverage (I am to blame since I should have looked into this more) so I am getting pretty stressed out that if they don't reach a settlement and it goes to trial we may be up the creek. We are struggling to make ends meet as it is, and this is definitley one more stressor that we did not need

That sucks Colleen, but try not to let it stress you out too much, your insurance company will help you. This happened to both my brother and sister (in Canada, no less) and in both cases it was dealt with by the insurance company and there was no court dates or anything like that. I think my brother had to go and make a statement. Your insurance might go up, but hopefully that'll be the worst of it. My best friend also works for an insurance company and they have investigators that know a lot about accidents and will be able to tell right away that they are lying. It's sick that there are people who do things like this out there.

If the airbags didn't deploy and the damage was minimal, that's already a good sign that this will go no where!

What terrible luck though

[Flames9_RN 358]

Some people(idiots) love to play it up! Thats why insurance rates are high! BUT I do not believe their air bags would deploy even if you hit them at 100 mph!! A vehicle that is rear ended---air bags dont deply--urs would, but not someone that is hit from behind.

http://www.nhtsa.gov/people/injury/airbags/airbags03/page3.html

I got rear ended, and my Brand new Acura Integra was totalled and I walked away!! And no my air bag did not deploy. It happened on the night of the VERY first Survivor final,lol I should have gone to the hospital. Was sore for awhile after, but was just sore. Hope it works out for ya! Insurance companies hate to loose $$, so you can be sure they will investigate.

[Colleens 40]

Thanks everyone!!

The insurance company has already done a lot of investigation, and had turned down their original requests because our insurance company did not think their demands were reasonable.

The airbag on my car did not deploy. In the summons they stated that we "failed to stop and struck them" which is not true. We had stopped, thought the light had changed and had just started rolling forward. Had we failed to stop the airbags would have deployed in my car.

One of the occupants of the vehicle admitted that one of the people taken in the ambulance had just had neck/back surgery a week or so ago for degenerative issues, so it was pretty clear that the injuries were already there.

I am pretty sure that if they don't settle with the insurance before it goes to trial, that they will not get the settlement they are looking for. At least I have all my fingers crossed!!

I am definitely calling tomorrow to change the coverage on our policy. I always carried $1 million liability in Canada, and had assumed that hubby would have been set up better then he was. I should have done more research I guess, but with all the immigration/AOS/Wedding/Baby stuff that went on last year, that was the last thing on my mind

[Ontarkie 14,221]

Well another sleepless night Alexis was up every hour and 45mins and that's not even what I'm bummed about. It's now mid Aug and I haven't even been in our pool since Alexis was born. It is out there calling me but I'm just too tired to bother. blah