4 ms·

We’re lucky enough to afford childcare and healthcare, but I can’t imagine how anyone making significantly less can do it. Healthcare costs are ongoing, and ob

We’re lucky enough to afford childcare and healthcare, but I can’t imagine how anyone making significantly less can do it. Healthcare costs are ongoing, and obscene. Routine newborn vaccines are around $900 per visit even with partial insurance coverage. Not to mention any unforeseen hospital visits that will force you to hit your deductible in the first two quarters of the year ($10k per child in our case). In most tier 2/3 cities in the US you can expect daycare to cost $1,000-$1,800 per child per month. In any tier 1 city, especially west coast cities like Seattle and SF, expect to pay at least $2,000/child per month. On top of that, you’ll have a mortgage. With median housing prices around $1.2-$1.6m and rates in the mid 5% you’re looking at anywhere from $6,500-$8,000/month for a mortgage depending on taxes. So right out of the gate, you’re at $10k of post tax income just going to daycare costs and a mortgage. You likely have other costs that equal at least $1,000/month. And that’s for 1 kid. Add another kid and you’re easily approaching $15k per month. If you do the math, you’ll need to make at least $250k if you have one kid considering at least 40% is going straight to taxes (aka military funds since we get nothing in this country for the insane amount of taxes we pay).

lotsofpulp 4y ago
>Routine newborn vaccines are around $900 per visit even with partial insurance coverage. Per ACA, all routine newborn care (including vaccines and routine blood draw) is 100% paid by insurance company. The specifics are all listed in the links below. https://www.healthcare.gov/preventive-care-children/ https://www.healthcare.gov/preventive-care-children/ https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/preventive-care-benefits/ https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/preventive-care-benefits... >Not to mention any unforeseen hospital visits that will force you to hit your deductible in the first two quarters of the year ($10k per child in our case). This is not true for the US. The maximum out of pocket legal limit for 2022 is $17.4k for a family. If you have a half decent employer, deductibles are far lower (in the $3k to $5k range), and so are out of pocket maximums (in the $5k to $10k range at most). https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/out-of-pocket-maximum-limit/ https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/out-of-pocket-maximum-li... https://www.healthcare.gov/high-deductible-health-plan/ https://www.healthcare.gov/high-deductible-health-plan/ I would budget at least 2 years of out of pocket maximums to have on hand. In our case, we hit out of pocket maximums of ~$5k and ~$7k during the year of birth, otherwise it costs $150 to $250 for a regular pink eye/ear infection consult and $400 to $500 for a specialist consult. This is in a very high cost of living area.
- ryanSrich 4y ago
  Unfortunately that’s not exactly how it works. We don’t have a marketplace plan, so our insurance has no responsibility to pay for anything really. The link you shared says this. “All Marketplace health plans and many other plans must cover the following list of preventive services for children without charging you a copayment or coinsurance. This is true even if you haven’t met your yearly deductible.” Maximum out of pocket only kicks in once you’ve hit the deductible on 2+ family members, at least for our plan. So for us, the max is $20k.
  - lotsofpulp 4y ago
    By purchasing insurance not compliant with marketplace regulations, one chooses to pay less in premiums in exchange for accepting the risk of paying more at point/time of care. >Maximum out of pocket only kicks in once you’ve hit the deductible on 2+ family members, at least for our plan. So for us, the max is $20k. Out of pocket maximum has nothing to do with deductible. Copays/coinsurance “kick in” after deductibles are reached. If you had purchased ACA complaint health insurance, then OOP max is simply OOP max, a single number that once you reach, you do not pay further for in network services (and now for out of network emergency services also). Edit: note that a “Marketplace” (or ACA complaint) plan explicitly transfers wealth from young and/or healthy to old and/or unhealthy, where healthy and unhealthy mean “does not need healthcare” and “needs healthcare”. So by choosing to go with a non Marketplace plan, they are placing their bets on not needing healthcare…which is probably not a winning bet for people birthing and raising young children.
    - ryanSrich 4y ago
      > note that a “Marketplace” (or ACA complaint) plan explicitly transfers wealth from young and/or healthy to old and/or unhealthy, where healthy and unhealthy mean “does not need healthcare” and “needs healthcare”. So by choosing to go with a non Marketplace plan, they are placing their bets on not needing healthcare…which is probably not a winning bet for people birthing and raising young children. The unfortunate reality is that paying $2000/month to an employer managed health plan is cheaper than going through the federal government ($5,000/month for a family of 4 the last I checked). If marketplace plans had lower premiums and lower deductibles that would be the ideal option.

lotsofpulp 4y ago

>Routine newborn vaccines are around $900 per visit even with partial insurance coverage. Per ACA, all routine newborn care (including vaccines and routine blood draw) is 100% paid by insurance company. The specifics are all listed in the links below. https://www.healthcare.gov/preventive-care-children/ https://www.healthcare.gov/preventive-care-children/ https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/preventive-care-benefits/ https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/preventive-care-benefits... >Not to mention any unforeseen hospital visits that will force you to hit your deductible in the first two quarters of the year ($10k per child in our case). This is not true for the US. The maximum out of pocket legal limit for 2022 is $17.4k for a family. If you have a half decent employer, deductibles are far lower (in the $3k to $5k range), and so are out of pocket maximums (in the $5k to $10k range at most). https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/out-of-pocket-maximum-limit/ https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/out-of-pocket-maximum-li... https://www.healthcare.gov/high-deductible-health-plan/ https://www.healthcare.gov/high-deductible-health-plan/ I would budget at least 2 years of out of pocket maximums to have on hand. In our case, we hit out of pocket maximums of ~$5k and ~$7k during the year of birth, otherwise it costs $150 to $250 for a regular pink eye/ear infection consult and $400 to $500 for a specialist consult. This is in a very high cost of living area.

ryanSrich 4y ago
Unfortunately that’s not exactly how it works. We don’t have a marketplace plan, so our insurance has no responsibility to pay for anything really. The link you shared says this. “All Marketplace health plans and many other plans must cover the following list of preventive services for children without charging you a copayment or coinsurance. This is true even if you haven’t met your yearly deductible.” Maximum out of pocket only kicks in once you’ve hit the deductible on 2+ family members, at least for our plan. So for us, the max is $20k.
- lotsofpulp 4y ago
  By purchasing insurance not compliant with marketplace regulations, one chooses to pay less in premiums in exchange for accepting the risk of paying more at point/time of care. >Maximum out of pocket only kicks in once you’ve hit the deductible on 2+ family members, at least for our plan. So for us, the max is $20k. Out of pocket maximum has nothing to do with deductible. Copays/coinsurance “kick in” after deductibles are reached. If you had purchased ACA complaint health insurance, then OOP max is simply OOP max, a single number that once you reach, you do not pay further for in network services (and now for out of network emergency services also). Edit: note that a “Marketplace” (or ACA complaint) plan explicitly transfers wealth from young and/or healthy to old and/or unhealthy, where healthy and unhealthy mean “does not need healthcare” and “needs healthcare”. So by choosing to go with a non Marketplace plan, they are placing their bets on not needing healthcare…which is probably not a winning bet for people birthing and raising young children.
  - ryanSrich 4y ago
    > note that a “Marketplace” (or ACA complaint) plan explicitly transfers wealth from young and/or healthy to old and/or unhealthy, where healthy and unhealthy mean “does not need healthcare” and “needs healthcare”. So by choosing to go with a non Marketplace plan, they are placing their bets on not needing healthcare…which is probably not a winning bet for people birthing and raising young children. The unfortunate reality is that paying $2000/month to an employer managed health plan is cheaper than going through the federal government ($5,000/month for a family of 4 the last I checked). If marketplace plans had lower premiums and lower deductibles that would be the ideal option.