Okay, I’m in a slightly better frame of mind today about this whole TTC mess, but I just wanted to expound a bit on my frustration with feeling like I’m going to drive my husband and I crazy while trying to pay the daily bills AND pay to hopefully have a child.
I am an IF who has just completed 1 yr of TTC insured with an additional maternity rider, albeit insurance my husband and I had to purchase ourselves for $400/month becauce we both work for small companies and neither of our jobs provide benefits (total cost to us = nearly $5000/year). That being said, I 100% believe in the importance of health insurance, but I also 100% believe that our system is BROKEN and anyone who is against health care reform is out of their freaking minds.
I vented about it a little back here in January (mainly focused on what it would cost us to birth a child – not even conceive!), but the breakdown is this – we both work full time, we are both healthy people, we both pay our bills and have insurance, yet we still are required to pay for nearly everything out of pocket when it comes to infertility (even for diagnostic work!) since we are not living in one of the 13 states that requires IF coverage.
As of 7/19/2010 – 1 yr of TTC copays with insurance: $1475
HPTs & OPKs: $183 (hopefully this will go down now that I temp more and test less)
Pre-natal vitamins / herbs / TTC books / Clomid / etc. : $245
Acupuncture: $370 (which I just started recently – a full year of this would cost me roughly $3,000)
Diagnostic Bloodwork, ultrasound, & Hubby’s SA: $677
Honestly, I know that $1500 isn’t that much in the scheme of things, but it petrifies me to think that I’ve never even met with an R.E., much less tried IUIs, injectibles, or IVF… and those are the costs that will begin to add up much more quickly into the 10s of thousands. Oh how I hope it doesn’t get to that for us. *sigh*
Please check out this awesome article from Fertility Lab Insider about IF & insurance companies.
Infertility as a covered insurance benefit
I know I’m not alone in my frustration with this, but HFS, things need to change!!
