I just found out that I am pregnant and right now we are on Minnesotacare. We are up for renewal and we may have made too much money to qualify again. I know that next year we wont qualify because my husbands business is taking off but not enough to afford health insurance yet. Is there health insurance out there that will take a pregnant women or is that a preexisting condition? I am probably only 5 weeks along so I dont know if I should get into the doc now or pretend like I didnt know so that we can get insurance through another company. Any advice would be great- I so need it!
Thanks everyone! Im going to call MNCare today and tell them Im pregnant so that I can make sure I get covered. It was a bit of a surprise so we didnt plan on needing health insurance immediately if we were denied. Im sure it will all be fine. Im just a little on the stressed side not knowing. Thanks again
You can try medical assistance. The income limit is much higher for a pregnant woman. e-mail if you want more info.
Hi, E....
You might check with general Minnesota Medical assistance. They have higher income guidelines for pregnancy. You may also want to let MN Care know you are pregnant as they process your renewal--that may bump the income limits up as well. Congratulations on the coming little one! :)
You should still qualify for minnesota care simply based on the fact that you are pregnant. Or medical assistance. In the state of minnesota medical assistance should cover any pregnant woman. I was on medical assistance for my pregnancy and it was so fantastic. We never paid a dime and we were even in the NICU for 5 days. Everything was covered 100%. Call MN care for more info. Congratulations on your pregnancy!
If you are pregnant, then Medicaide (or is it Mediacare?)will cover you if you fit into the income guidelines. Also if you don't have insurance you can get great prenatal and birthing care through Catholic Charities Seton Services in St. Paul. You don't need to be Catholic and you get terrific Midwifery care and birth at St. Joe's.
Pregnancy is not a pre-existing condition. All health care providers are required by law to cover your pre-natal and post-natal care and delivery, regardless of when you join their coverage.
Hi E.. I worked for MinnesotaCare (before becoming a licensed child care provider!). I wanted to make sure you knew that since you are pregnant you would be adding one more to the number of family members- which allows for more income. You may have an increase in your premium with the higher income- but it is worth renewing your application & just finding out. Unless your husband has access to insurance through an employer (which it sounds like he doesn't) they won't just cut off your benefits. Even with a higher premium, it would be less expensive than buying insurance on your own. I would definitely report the pregnancy to MnCare- you can ask them what the higher income level is for the higher number of family members.
Best of luck with the new baby!!
D.
Insurance companies require at least a 10 month period before a woman can have a baby covered by the policy. We were in the same position as you- health insurance is so expensive! One thing you can (and we all should) do is write your Congessman (or woman) and push for the health insurance companies to be allowed to compete in the market place- just like car insurance and most other services we need. Wouldn't it be nice if insurance companies had to compete with prices and services? Sorry if this is a rant, but I was just talking to someone about how nice it would be if we as consumers had a choice.
One solution that might work for you is to open a Health Saving Account (HSA). It's like an ordinary savings account but it is used solely for medical bills which makes it tax deductible. That will save you some money in the end. Good luck!
E.-
If you're already on MinnesotaCare then you know about Medical Assistance. I was on MA during my recent pregnancy and my 4 month old daughter is automatically covered until her 1st birthday; I no longer qualify because our income is above their limit. For me MA actually acted as a secondary insurance since I had private insurance through Health Partners. I didn't see a single bill from my $25,000 delivery! So reapply for MinnesotaCare as well as Medical Assistance. There should be an application available that covers both. To the best of my knowledge pregnant woman are automatically eligible for coverage through your county. Another fabulous option is WIC, which provides food for you and then formula for your baby. In regards to pregnancy being a pre-existing condition I've gotten mixed reports on that so I won't say either way. Hope that helps :)
from past experience don't go to the doc until you are on a plan or you will be preexisting
I'm pretty sure ANY pregnant woman in MN is covered with medical assistance. Call your worker or contact MN Care and tell them immediately.
I didn't have healthy insurance when I was pregnant so I went to planned parenthood, got verification from them that I was indeed pregnant, sent that to medical assistance and bam I was covered just like that, my daughter was born 2mos. premature, I was in the hospital for 10 days so I say THANK GOD for Medical Assistance.
