MS0 with pregnant wife

[TexasFool]

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I was wondering if anyone had any advice about having a baby right when I'm starting out medical school. My wife is actually having the baby and I'm the med student. We are both uninsured and I'm looking for ideas for paying for the medical costs. Buying insurance now is out of the question as far as I know.

Any advice?

 

[beancounter]

Purchasing private insurance will typically not cover pregnancy. Does your wife's employer provide health insurance? Her employer-provided health insurance will most likely cover pregnancy. If she is unable to work, maybe you could qualify for government assistance.

 

[TexasFool]

Purchasing private insurance will typically not cover pregnancy. Does your wife's employer provide health insurance? Her employer-provided health insurance will most likely cover pregnancy. If she is unable to work, maybe you could qualify for government assistance.

Neither of us has any kind of insurance.

I wonder if giving birth in the teaching hospital would be less expensive.

 

[venez]

i was pregnant during undergrad. both my husband and i had part-time jobs with no health insurance. we qualifief for an access card--medical assistance. i did feel somewhat loserish to do this--but it was temporary. and i know i will be paying the government back oodles of dollars someday.

 

[mshheaddoc]

I would see what your state guidelines are for uninsured pregnancies, some states have plans in place for this. If not, I'd try to apply for medicaid or some sort of gov't funding.

 

[tkim]

If you don't have insurance, and cannot afford or qualify for it, then suck it up and apply for Medicaid. The government, as far as I can tell, cannot deny health insurance to an uninsured pregnant woman.

Sure it might not be the way you wanted to go through pregnancy, but there really is no excuse for poor prenatal care. You really want to be on top of that.

 

[bananaface]

I see that you are at the University of Toledo.

Here are the Ohio guidelines and a link to the application page. She probably qualifies under their Healthy Start program. The application link is dead, so you would need to contact them directly. They do note that a face to face is not necessary to establish this sort of coverage.

http://jfs.ohio.gov/OHP/consumers/whoqualifies.stm
http://jfs.ohio.gov/OHP/consumers/incGuide.stm
http://jfs.ohio.gov/OHP//consumers/Application.stm

Good luck and Congratulations. 🙂