Opinions?

[HomesteaderWife]

I know this isn't pertaining to homeschooling necessarily, but I know this is a section where those with children come and talk. So I want to ask this, and please give honest opinions. My husband and I currently work from home and make our living off of projects here at our home. We are currently starting the walls on our cabin, and have discussed trying to have children after it is finished. The thing is, he has insurance but I do not. I have not had insurance since I left my job a little over a year ago.

I guess what I am asking for opinions/personal experience on is the necessity to have insurance for having a child. Many people say yes, you need insurance, but I have seen people say the opposite. I just want input on this since it's still a good ways down the road before we try to have children. We want to try and live as self-sufficient as possible, but this is a touchy subject because I want to make sure we can be the best possible parents we can.

Any thoughts on this? Did you have insurance when you had your child/children? If not, how did you go about it? Thank you for any input.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

DH is living on only 35% of his heart's capacity. He is really the only one in our family who is needing insurance. The rest of us are like the majority of the population.....its nice if you happen to have a freak accident or if you happen to be a time bomb, waiting to explode and you have no idea about it, but truth be it known, most healthy people don't use it.
I don't know you have much of a choice, if you reside in the US right now. DH was fired almost a month ago, so we are doing what we have to, to get on socialized medicine.....not that I agree with it, but just trying, more to not have a fine, for no insurance than to get something free of charge, if you know what I mean.
Now if it weren't for government mandates, I could chance it with my kids, because I am a nurse and know how to tend my kids myself. The doctors never got rich off my kids.
I don't like the mandate, but I'm not a member of Congress, so it wasn't my decision.

 

[baymule]

We always had jobs and had insurance. Insurance used to be a lot cheaper, thanks to Obamacare, it is stupid high now.

 

[Britesea]

Even if you don't look at required insurance in the US, I would say insurance is a good idea for small children, especially for first time parents. Children can have a lot of things go wrong, have accidents, all kinds of things. Most parents are surprised by the trouble their children get into; first time parents more than experienced ones.

 

[HomesteaderWife]

Thank you for all the honest opinions here, I really appreciate it. Children are still a bit down the road, but I do want to prepare and seek out the right insurance. I admit that it makes me nervous- I do worry about accidents and injuries to a little one!

 

[Denim Deb]

We always had insurance because of hubby's work. But quite honestly, IMO, too many things are covered by insurance. I'd rather see just things like ER visits, hospital stays, etc., be covered by insurance-especially if it would mean more money in our pocket!

 

[tortoise]

I had this debate before getting pregnant with my first. We nearly opted for saving up for routine maternity and delivery expenses. We opted for insurance. The medical bills for prenatal care were $77,000, if I remember correctly. I am so thankful we got health insurance. My second was complicated and expensive too, but because my general stress level was much lower I only was hospitalized and transferred to a NICU hospital one time and the total was not so dramatic.

When I was at the NICU hospital, 26 weeks pregnant, in preterm labor, my husband picked up the mail before driving 2 hours to the hospital. In the mail - a letter from his health insurance company saying they hadn't received his payment and the insurance policy for Baby was being cancelled. It was a clerical error, but you can imagine his panic when we were expecting a million dollar NICU baby with no insurance!

I vote health insurance. Pregnancy and delivery is a very risky thing, and there are limits to how much care you can decline before Child Protection Services and the court system gets involved. A pregnant woman loses her own rights when she lives in a "personhood" state. The government can force pregnant women to have medical procedures done against their will (guess who pays for it?) This is not a conspiracy theory anti-government rant. Go to scholar.google.com, select the search option so you're only looking at case law and do some digging around.

 

[tortoise]

Even if you don't look at required insurance in the US, I would say insurance is a good idea for small children, especially for first time parents. Children can have a lot of things go wrong, have accidents, all kinds of things. Most parents are surprised by the trouble their children get into; first time parents more than experienced ones.

Hah, even experienced parents! We had the lovely experience of my 8 yr old swinging off a rope in the barn and cracking his head. Trip to ER. THE NEXT NIGHT, I discover fiber strangulation on Baby's toe and we're back in ER again. 2 days in a row. (embarrassing!) Sleep deprivation throws everything to heck. Who you are now and who you will be after your brain marinades in pregnant hormones (google "placenta brain", not verified in the medical community but ask ANY mom) and running on 4 hours of interrupted sleep is totally different. Not trying to dissuade from having children, but crazy stuff happens...