Let’s talk about one of the jerky-est parts of miscarriage:
The bills.
The constant reminder of what happened to you. The mailbox is no longer an awesome source of US Weekly. It is now a place filled with insurance statements and bills and re-bills.
Re-bills? Didn’t you forget? You were so shaken and angry that you filled out your debit card information wrong. So you get the bill again.
Then you find out that your employer forgot to renew the debit cards and that all expired on March 1st… the same day you mailed back several of the large bills.
So you are standing there in the afternoon, over two months since your miscarriage and you are still getting bills in the mail and your US weekly is late.
I need to insert a disclaimer. I have awesome insurance and I realize that I am one of the lucky ones. My miscarriage didn’t cost me anything. I was able to make the decision to get a D&C without having to worry about the cost. My job provides me with a debit card to cover my deductible every year. I am not complaining about them forgetting to renew the card. That was a minor inconvenience overall, but it extended the crappyness.
Last time, I cried when I got the bills and I paid them and just got mad. I noticed that the bills were high. I kept track this time.
As of March 22, the total cost of my D&C (excluding copays) was $4,468.79. That is not cheap. My insurance covered about 80% of that. My total cost was $966.87.
Again, I didn’t have to pay anything. How would my decision change if I had to pay that much out of pocket? I know I would have had to stop and think about it. We are not in a position where we couldn’t pay that amount, so I would have still had the surgery. I’m fully aware that not everyone can take the surgery route because of the cost. My heart goes out to anyone who has to deal with stress about money in addition to everything else.
8 comments:
It was devastating to me that on my insurance E.O.B.'s it categorizes or labels a D&C as a "missed abortion.". Horribly, incredibly upsetting. And I had insurance nightmares that went on for months, so I had to keep going back to that EOB and that horrible phrase.
There are certain surgeries/procedures that I think should just be free...and this is one of them. I'm sorry you had those nasty reminders =(
:( It's like an extra slap in the face, huh? I remember getting a bill for going to the closest emergency room when I was bleeding so much that I fainted. I was admitted there, so the ER fee was waived, but I was transported by ambulance to the hospital where I had the D&C...and somehow ended up paying $200 or something like that in the process. Thank God for insurance that does cover most of the costs of an unwanted surgery. And like Ms. J, my label was "spontaneous abortion"...as if I had a spur of the moment decision to go through a heart-wrenching procedure. It just hurts.
I'm sorry you're getting those constant reminders. It's a sticky situation. I wouldn't want to be asked for the money the day of the procedure either. Insult to injury either way. Sucky. :(
That is another painful thing. My last bill called it an "Abortive D&C /Spontaneous/Missed" In my house, we call it "the very sad thing" so I don't have to say the words.
I had no insurance when I found out I was pregnant. DH and I ended up going to get some that cost us about $400/month and would only really cover delivery...but we figured it'd be worth it.
The one month I had that insurance was the month I miscarried. Bad part about it was that the plan didn't cover any pre or post natal...so when I went to the ER miscarrying, it covered the hospital visit itself, but no tests related to the pregnancy whatsoever. I still ended up needing a D&C...so again insurance covered hospital stay and some meds, but not the procedure. Ended up having around $5K total out of pocket :(
It was awful seeing those bills come in...but DH did a good job trying to keep me from seeing them. He also put every other (credit card) bill on hold so we could pay off the m/c bills first. Luckily we were rid of them within 3 months...
Ah, the insult added to the injury ...
I am saving my rage about this for the moment I found out that it's really going to happen, but there is a chance that I'm going to have to pay for all miscarriage-related medical care out of pocket. Even though pregnancy care is 100% covered by all health plans in this country. If you're unlucky enough to miscarry it, you might be unlucky enough to have to pay for it, too.
I hope you get the bills worked out soon, and more importantly, I hope your next Us Weekly arrives in a very timely fashion!
The bills are devastating - even if your insurance covers it. The medical terminology is the very worst. I remember before my first D&C (I had 2 within 6 months) the nurse looked at me and said "i c you are here because of a spontaneous abortion". It took EVERYTHING within me not to punch that woman in the face. What a HORRIBLE way to name a loss and what an idiot for saying it to me before the surgery! Seeing it on a bill would have been bad enough!!! So very sorry for your loss (((hugs))) thank you for the link to your post regarding c-sections there was certainly some items (tank tops, drawstring pants) that I wouldn't have thought of myself :)
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