Ahhh It's confirmed...Anna Duggar pregnant!!

[LainieR]

In Canada it's 35wks parental leave that either parent can take (and can be taken at the same time) and 16 weeks pregnancy leave that only the mother can take.

Right now I'm making about half of what I normally do on leave.

[2xx1xy1JD]

What you have to pay depends on how good your insurance is. We have fairly good insurance so I only pay a $250 copay for giving birth, regardless if it is a cesarean or vaginal. The copay covers all hospitals fees, hospital stay up to three days, all meds, and all fees related to the new baby (nursery, meds, etc.).

An 80/20 insurance plan is pretty common. After the insurance negotiates the fees down, they cover 80% and you pay the remaining 20%.

When I gave birth to my daughter in 2009 (cesarean) the bill from the hospital was almost $70,000. My insurance negotiated it down to $14,000 and I was only responsible for $250. If I had an 80/20 plan, I would have owed just under $3,000 after the insurance paid its share.

Edited to remove a stray apostrophe.

$70,000!!! Was it more complicated than a standard c-section?

I had 3 c-sections here in Canada. I think I paid for parking once, and I also paid $5 for each ultrasound picture for the baby book, and $4 for the telephone in the room. That's about it.

Being self-employed, I never qualified for maternity leave benefits, but my husband did with our first since he was still a medical resident. He took 12 weeks and loved every minute of it.

[Mommy22alyns]

So jealous of that British healthcare system!

For my oldest's birth we paid a few hundred dollars (not counting prenatal care). Vaginal, epidural. DH took maybe 2 days off work.

My youngest, we paid about $2K and the billed amount was about $50K for a month's hospitalization, C-section, and a little extra newborn care. I think DH was off the day of the C-section and had to go back right away. He'd taken the day off when we were supposed to be discharged only to find out that they wanted us to stay another day.

[Daisy4]

We are really lucky that my husband works for a great company. He gets 4 weeks fully paid paternity leave that he can use any time in the first 4 months after the kid is born. He is planning to take 2 weeks vacation time right after the birth, then, when I got back to work after 12 weeks, he will take the 4 "paternity" weeks. (we are in the US)

At that company, everyone gets those 4 weeks, its called "bonding time". Additionally, they cover Short Term Disability with no employee contribution and their plan covers 100% salary for 8 week for a vaginal delivery. So, women working there get 12 weeks paid off for giving birth. This is a really great plan by American standards. They are also pretty LGBT friendly, they offer 12 weeks bonding time paid 100% for the primary caregiver of an adopted child and 4 weeks bonding time for the secondary caregiver.

My company on the other hand will hold my job for 12 weeks (b/c the law says they have to). They offer Short Term Disability that I choose to enroll in (and pay for) that will pay me 80% salary for 6 weeks for a vaginal delivery. After than I'm free to use my vacation time. I'll end up being unpaid for the last 5 weeks of the 12 weeks that I'll take off.

[Coconut Flan]

My last two births cost $39 combined. The first was $14 for one thing not covered and the second was $25 because I opted for a private room. Childbirth including pregnancy is covered 100% on my insurance and the child is covered 100% the first six weeks.

US hospitals can be for profit or non-profit. Most in this area are non-profit. Doctors, nurses, and other employees are all private sector (non-governmental) personnel for general public hospitals. However, we do have state and federal hospitals also such as the military hospitals and public health service.

[persuas1ve]

Wow...I'm incredibly jealous of the healthcare system in Canada & Britain!

We have great insurance so we only paid for the circumcision, but my husband took two weeks of accumulated leave & that was a lot for most guys in the area.

[garciarodrigez]

Cross-posted with yewchapel, buggar.

I feel really sorry that the FJers in the US don't get proper parental leave, every man can take up to 2 weeks paternity leave in the UK (David Cameron famously took it when his youngest daughter was born.) I'm not sure what happens in the case of prem babies - I think my dad got compassionate leave anyway (bro#2 died) but was also able to take carers leave/go off sick....

garciarodrigez: Congrats on the grandbaby! :)

Violet, first let me say I'm sorry about your brother. That's never easy. Secondly, thanks for the congrats. We love it.

[Kitchen Princess]

Anyone in the US who works for a company with more than 50 employees is entitled to Family Leave up to 12 weeks under the Family Medical Leave Act, but it is not a requirement of the law that the employee be paid. Most people can't afford to go without a paycheck that long, so they believe they have no leave available. It's not true, though.

[Daisy4]

Anyone in the US who works for a company with more than 50 employees is entitled to Family Leave up to 12 weeks under the Family Medical Leave Act, but it is not a requirement of the law that the employee be paid. Most people can't afford to go without a paycheck that long, so they believe they have no leave available. It's not true, though.

It amazes me how many people don't understand FMLA. I'm reading a lot of baby message boards right now and people think that they can "use" FMLA after disability or vacation time and that it means they will get paid while out. I hope that the posters on babycenter aren't a good representation of the population in general but most of them don't seem to understand that FMLA does absolutely nothing but protect your job for 12 weeks while you are out. (assuming your job has more than 50 people and you have been working there for more than a year)

[whirlygirly]

Kinda OT: Yes, I am a proud first-time grandma here as of February 1st. So Happy!

Congrats! Grandbabies are the best. :) My 2nd is due in May and i can't wait!

[Irishy]

In Ireland we get 6 months paid maternity leave and an option of a further 3 months unpaid. It is there as an incentive to keep women - specifically mothers, in the work force. And also so there is no disincentive to procreate. Employers are obliged to hold your job for you and you are entitled to return to your exact job and not be messed around with. Discrimination on the grounds of pregnancy is extremely frowned upon. You are also entitled to paid time off for pregnancy related medical appointments and antenatal classes. As with all healthcare, giving birth here costs nothing. You can of course choose a private hospital, but you have no need to. Often people going private do so for snobbery and status reasons.

[Spider Burps]

That's why I pay extra for my health insurance. I'm paying for it as an individual, but if I did end up pregnant all of my prenatal care is completely free, I have 24 months of well-baby check ups that are free, and I only have to pay $250 a day for labor and delivery (or any other time I'm admitted to the hospital).

Your insurance sounds like mine coverage-wise, except we just pay $100 a month for Mr Burps and me (his company pays the additional $14,000 or so a year). The prenatal and postnatal care are 100% covered, the first two years of pediatrician visits are covered, and we won't even have a copay for the OB visits or the birth. Plus, it's only $6 more a month to add one or more children to our insurance. Mr Burps' work may not pay well, but this thread really, really made me appreciate our insurance.

[bluelady]

In Canada it's 35wks parental leave that either parent can take (and can be taken at the same time) and 16 weeks pregnancy leave that only the mother can take.

Right now I'm making about half of what I normally do on leave.

You can get topped up, too, depending on the company you work for. I have friends who ended up bringing home more on maternity leave than their regular salary because their employer topped up and they ended up not paying the same deductions. It wasn't much more, but $100 a month is $100 a month.

[lovemygsp]

It amazes me how many people don't understand FMLA. I'm reading a lot of baby message boards right now and people think that they can "use" FMLA after disability or vacation time and that it means they will get paid while out. I hope that the posters on babycenter aren't a good representation of the population in general but most of them don't seem to understand that FMLA does absolutely nothing but protect your job for 12 weeks while you are out. (assuming your job has more than 50 people and you have been working there for more than a year)

Babycenter is like the fundie babymaking machine hang out. I couldn't stand the stupid there. I think most people on there are those who shouldn't be having babies to begin with but are. :doh: I've found weddingbee to be a bit more centered.

[Mama Mia]

With FMLA it depends on your state as well. In California if your company pays into the State Disability System than you can get state disability payments during the FMLA coverage.

Unfortunately many people are exempted - including most teachers and public service workers if they don't pay into state disability.

I am incredibly jealous of other countries health care and maternity systems !

[garciarodrigez]

Congrats! Grandbabies are the best. :) My 2nd is due in May and i can't wait!

Thank you. I agree already, he is the best. Congrats to you too. May isn't to far.

[DuggarsTheEndIsNear]

So, does each hospital operate as a business effectively? Are they for-profit? Are docs and nurses considered private sector workers?

It really depends on the hospital and what insurance plans are available/lawful in your state. There's a hospital not too far from me that is non-profit. If you cant afford to pay your bill, you'll still receive care because they have enough donations to do so. The hospital I go to, which is owned by my insurance company, is a co-op. It has many of the benefits of a non-profit hospital, but when it comes to fees they operate much like a for-profit. Though, there are significant discounts if you're an insured member. For instance: all preventative care (immunizations and the like) are free; checkups and other doctor visits are a $20-30 copay depending on your plan; diagnostic tests (x-rays, ct-scans, cultures, blood work, etc) are all $10; all prescription brand name drugs are $30, all prescription generic brands are $10, and all over the counter meds are at a great discount. Then there are hospitals that are completely for profit. Everything is generally more expensive, including plans. I know that many states only have for-profit insurance plans, others have for- and non-profit plans, and some have a mix of the three.

[CallmeChaCha]

I can't believe other countries give paternity leave. That's so crazy to me. I know one guy in our agency that took paternity leave, and that's what everyone was calling it but we all know that's not really what it is because he was just using his accrued leave time. As someone else pointed out, a lot of government employees don't pay into State disability (at least in California) so I've heard from friends that their female coworkers who get pregnant ask for donated leave hours because otherwise they'd have to take a pay cut, so to speak, once they run out of accrued leave time.

If fundies use midwives for home-birthing because they don't have health insurance, what are they going to do when they all have to get health insurance under the ebil Obamacare?

[anjulibai]

My husband got paternity leave, and we're in Maryland. He works for a federal subcontractor.

[Bethella]

I can't believe other countries give paternity leave. That's so crazy to me. I know one guy in our agency that took paternity leave, and that's what everyone was calling it but we all know that's not really what it is because he was just using his accrued leave time. As someone else pointed out, a lot of government employees don't pay into State disability (at least in California) so I've heard from friends that their female coworkers who get pregnant ask for donated leave hours because otherwise they'd have to take a pay cut, so to speak, once they run out of accrued leave time.

If fundies use midwives for home-birthing because they don't have health insurance, what are they going to do when they all have to get health insurance under the ebil Obamacare?

I believe that they are going to consider Scamaritan as insurance, plus many of them will probably qualify for medicaid. Although I can see at least some of them paying the penalties for not getting insurance because they don't want to get a hand-out from the ebil govmint.

Take a look at this segment from AC360 tonight. http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2013/02/20/t ... hpt=ac_bn2

...patients like Bob Weinkauf from this Dallas suburb whose bill from two hospitals while recovering from a horrific lung disease was $474,000. On his bill, and on many others, were various charges of $200 for a warm blanket to $200 for a teddy bear used to help ease coughing after surgery and a $39 charge each time a nurse pricked his finger for blood work. Especially galling to people like Pat Palmer were charges of $12 for those little paper cups nurses give you when they administer pills.

[HOTW]

I got 6 weeks disability after our first was born,cannot remember what we paid as opayment for her birth, our son the Bill for the Hospital was well over $10,000 and our copay was in the thousands- this didnt include the $700+ co pay to the Dr office. Our youngest was born under two coverages so we never had to pay any copay! Which was a relief as we were still trying to pay off the bill from our son! I alwasy request itemized bills and report any wrong billings to the insurance company after I had a surgery and they tried to charge me for medication I never used and soap use that numbered over 200 bars!! The Insurance was ready to pay it all until I sent them a copy of the wrongful charges highlighted and saved them (and me) several thousand dollars!

[CallmeChaCha]

I believe that they are going to consider Scamaritan as insurance, plus many of them will probably qualify for medicaid. Although I can see at least some of them paying the penalties for not getting insurance because they don't want to get a hand-out from the ebil govmint.

Take a look at this segment from AC360 tonight. http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2013/02/20/t ... hpt=ac_bn2

$200 for a teddy bear? Does it have special healing powers?! That's so ridiculous. My coworkers have told me similar things about how they got charged $20 for one sanitary napkin or $6 for one ibuprofen. WTF! It's like buying illegal drugs or something. Might be cheaper to supply your own stuff.

[Lillybee]

We paid cash for all of our babies, probably the last people in America to do so.

We did the Bradley bath for baby no. 2 and this was in 1976 were charged over 100.00 for 4 liters of distilled water.

We fought that one and won.

[chickie]

Now you sound like a silly British girl ;) No, very few people in the US have paternity leave. In fact, it's nearly unheard of. Most fathers are expected to be back at work as soon as the mother is home from the hospital. I can only think of a couple people I know who took more than a week or maybe two off when their wife had a baby. Like I said, it's a totally foreign concept here.

When I had my daughter, my husband thought he would be eligible for paternity leave. He wasn't. He would have to use up all of his accrued vacation and sick days and then apply for FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act) http://www.dol.gov/whd/fmla/ for paternity leave. While on FMLA, he would only receive a percentage of his pay based on his earnings during the previous tax year.

Thankfully, he has a very understanding employer and was able to stretch out his three weeks of vacation time by taking Friday and Monday as vacation days, working from home Tuesday and Wednesday, and going to the office on Thursday. It was a huge help having him around and he had time to bond with our baby.

[chickie]

$70,000!!! Was it more complicated than a standard c-section?

I had 3 c-sections here in Canada. I think I paid for parking once, and I also paid $5 for each ultrasound picture for the baby book, and $4 for the telephone in the room. That's about it.

Being self-employed, I never qualified for maternity leave benefits, but my husband did with our first since he was still a medical resident. He took 12 weeks and loved every minute of it.

This is why families get financially strapped if they don't have insurance and have a medical emergency or deliver a baby at a hospital. If I didn't have any insurance, I would have had to pay the hospital the entire $70,000 bill. That's would have taken forever. There are charges for everything - labor room, operating room, care, meds, days in the hospital, etc. And the doctor that delivers is considered a private contractor from the hospital, so you get a bill from them too - separate from the hospital. Thankfully, I only had to pay a $20 copay for the doctor that preformed the c-section.