Since we arrived in August 2009, I have had health insurance for less than half the time - generally travel insurance from NZ - which I have never used. I am sharing my following spiel regarding this because people have often asked me for advice on getting and using health insurance here in the States and I've always said: We have to buy Jbird very comprehensive plan through each school he goes to which we try not to use because even the $25 co-pay is a lot of money to us. I have nothing. The follow up question is most likely: What do you do when you need to go to the doctor? I don't. The reason I sporadically get travel insurance is because it will cover an emergency - what if I were to walk under a bus? our financial lives would be ruined - and it's vastly cheaper than anything offered here. When I don't have it, it's a stress that I carry.
Because we decided to have a baby which is outside the limits of travel insurance, we bought spouse health insurance through the school which should (fingers crossed) cover most (all?) of my medical expenses to birth this baby. Ironically, after avoiding buying insurance for so long, I'm currently covered by two insurances until April.
Buying American health insurance is a relief for me. Though NZ travel insurance offers around a million dollars coverage should something dire happen, it is a provider on the other side of the world which doesn't seem very user friendly. And I would need to return home within a time frame to make sure I can redeem it. The American health insurance, on the other hand, only offers around $100,000 worth of medical expenses, but it is immediately accessible.
I've been to the midwife a few times now, and had numerous tests done, and the statements have started to arrive in our mail. Both of the issues I have had so far, I believe are common issues. First of all, it turns out the data entry people don't always put the right things into the computer - we have been billed twice for different things my insurance will cover. Fixing this involves numerous phone calls to both the insurance provider, and the health care provider, and back again. Have I told you my dread of talking to Americans on the phone? My accent and trains of thought are always extremely foreign to the person on the other end.
The other problem I have is the lack of transparency on the statements - they do not offer plain English explanations about what they are for. Tests show up as four digit numbers. I have made many phone calls trying to find out what these mean without much luck. My insurance provider can offer me the scientific terminology for the digits. My health care provider has no idea what the four digits mean. If I offer them the scientific terminology which I have so painstakingly transcribed over the phone from a patient insurance customer representative, they are uninterested. They do not seem very interested in listing the tests for me, I'd like to know exactly what money my insurance provider is paying. I have not been able to find evidence for one particular test I know I had which I would have liked to know the price for as Jbird ended up doing the same test. My midwife flippantly told me "it's a 25 dollar test". Is it though? None of the tests cost $25. They range from $36 to a couple of hundred. I guess we'll find out when Jbird's statement comes through.
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