Maternity Card Vs. Prenatel/Delivery Discounts

I don't know about Dallas Presby, but to give you an idea, Trinity in Carrollton charges $3200 for a routine delivery and $4500 for a C-Section with the discount. Plano Presby was almost twice as much! This of course does not include your OB, epidural or pediatrician. I'm going through this w/o insurance myself. Good luck.

I had my son at Baylor Grapevine in March and was a self pay patient. We researched the maternity card but the doctor I was seeing had never even heard of it so that made me skeptical. I prepaid as much as I could so before the baby was born we paid $5600. After he was born we got a stack of bills for things that were not covered by the "prepaid package" It was another $4000 worth of bills...epidural, circumcisions, the baby' stay at the hospital, etc. Try to negotiate any discounts you can beforehand, it will not be cheap no matter what.

I am also having the same issue---no maternity insurance. We are considered "cash pay" and we are getting a 20% discount from our doctor and a flat rate from Med. Center of Plano. It's $6500 for a c-section. I don't know about a vaginal delivery, but I know it's cheaper. Presby Dallas was $9500.00 for cash pay for a C-section when I called!
I have researched this quite a bit and the only thing that seemed worth it was Humana One Individual Health Insurance. When I ran the numbers, it seemed that would've been just a little cheaper than paying out of our pocket. It's practically the only individual insurance that offers mat. coverage without a cost limit. The others I found had limits($4500.00 is all they would cover). The only problem with Humana One is that you have to sign up, wait 30 days BEFORE you get pregnant. When I found out about it, I was already pregnant so that option was out for us. So, if you aren't pregnant yet, I would check into Humana One.

Hope this helps. It is no fun not having Mat. insurance and I honestly believe middle class people who are self employed get the short end of the stick where health insurance is concerned.

Good Luck,
N.

C.,

Three years ago, I was in the same situation that you are in now. I looked into Maternity Card and found that in order to receive their discounts, you would have use the services of the hospitals and doctors that were part of the plan. Maternity Card would not tell us in advance who was part of the plan unless we agreed to enroll. So, we enrolled the first month and checked out the list. It was VERY restrictive. There weren't many on the list. None of my doctors or nearby hospitals were on the list. Needless to say, I was very disappointed. We cancelled after the first month. Besides, we calculated the savings and it was the SAME as if you were given the discount of 30% from the hospitals and doctors. I have gone through 3 pregnancies using only the discounts. We have insurance that covers any pregnancy complications. Once the baby is born, insurance would take over and cover the baby's pediatrician.

Hope that helps!
K.