Insurance

We have been on an insurance roller coaster these last few days.

My husband is quitting his job at the end of the summer so that he can attend school for his masters degree. After my ultrasound last week, he thought he should call the school's insurance to make sure they would cover our baby. He just wanted to check, because we thought, why wouldn't they? We were very shocked when the guy told us that they do not cover congenital anomolies that are not life threatening. He said our baby's surgical repairs were cosmetic, and therefore, not covered. Um, yah right! HE should try eating, speaking, and living everyday life with a hole in is face and mouth. NOT cosmetic.

So we started looking into other options, which looked overwhelmingly costly. Most private insurances were turning us down, saying they would not cover our baby. Some insurances said they would cover him, but they add ridiculous fees since they knew our baby would cost so much. This was estimated to be around 1000 dollars a month. AS IF college students without a job could afford that! Medicaid told us there was "no way" we would be covered because we are not impoverished. Yes, we have money in savings so that when we don't have a job,we have money to live off of. Apparently we should have been irresponsible, not saved our money, and THEN we could be on Medicaid. That makes plenty of sense. The final option was COBRA, which allows us to stay on the same insurance we have with my husband's company now, except he'd have to make up the difference for what the company is now paying. Turns out, that's a lot. $1100 a month. Things were looking really grim.

I was feeling so overwhelmed. I felt like we had done everything in our power to prepare ourselves financially to go to school. And within an instant, everything was slipping out of our hands. I never thought that we might not be able to afford medical care for our baby. I believed in insurance and thought they'd be there when we needed them. We started wondering if we should even go to school, if we even could go. That didn't feel right, though. We feel strongly that we are supposed to be going to school this fall. Although that wasn't turning out to be the easiest choice. We just hoped and prayed that something would work out.

My friend sent me a quote that I have already read a million times:

"It isn't as bad as you sometimes think it is. It all works out. Don't worry. I say that to myself every morning. It will all work out. If you do your best, it will all work out. Put your trust in God and move forward with faith and confidence in the future. The Lord will not forsake us, . . . if we put our trust in Him, if we pray to Him, if we live worthy of His blessings, He will hear our prayers." Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley



I started reading that everytime I got overwhelmed with insurance problems. It helped a lot.


Yesterday, we called the school insurance again. It seemed ridiculous that they wouldn't cover us. We talked to someone more knowledgeable and found out that they would cover us and our baby completely, if the baby had the coverage when he was born. Hmm. The ONLY way to get the coverage is to either be an employee of the church, or a student. My husband doesn't start school until August, and our baby is due in May. Was there a way he could take classes this summer???


My husband made some calls this morning and shared our story with a sweet lady in the MBA program. She said that she didn't see any way that he could take classes early since the MBA program is so rigidly set already. But she'd see what she could do. We got a phone call before lunch from this lady. She had a meeting with the man in charge of admissions for the MBA program and the dean of the MBA program. A special meeting, with very important people, just to discuss us! They decided that our situation merited special treatment, and that my husband could take on-line classes this summer so our baby will be covered. When my husband told me about this, tears came to my eyes. So many strings were pulled for this to happen. This is what I call a miracle.


So, our baby will be covered. He will receive the medical care he so desperately will need. We will be able to attend school this fall and actually afford insurance ($300 a month). I am just so grateful for this opportunity that has opened up for us. I know we are being looked after.


It all works out.