Aside from the high deductible plans mentioned, even a fairly modest one can reach that if you split the pregnancy over two years :-(
Yes, folks outside the US, we here in America try to time pregnancies over bullshit details of how our insurance plans work. At least anyone who's thought about it does. Those who haven't get a nasty surprise, and pay (up to) double.
> It’d also be conducive to his wallet if they get born before Jan 1st.
Agreed. Also, being born even on December 31 2019 qualifies you for having another dependent in your household for the entire 2019 taxes, so it's a double whammy.
A due date after September-ish ensures you're only paying the medical treatments/screens/hospitalization/etc for that year and that year only (vs, as you mention, a due date that happens potentially anytime between Jan-August).
I can only speak about NYC but this was a common cost range even with diamond plans from corporations. A lot of it can be fine print and delta balance billing.
Many high deductible ones, where you are covering multiple people (e.g. a spouse and a kid).
And almost everyone where some medical professional, somewhere in the chain of hospital visits, happened to be out of network - someone you had no idea would be involved. Examples would be where the doctor sent lab results to another doctor for analysis, etc.
All my plans since 2013 have been $12K+ deductible. (Self-employed in Ohio.) Every medical event is a major shopping and price comparison exercise, and nearly every provider refuses to quote hard-and-fast prices. (You also get treated very badly by some practices who act terribly put-off that you'd have the lack of decency to ask about prices. You get that treatment double when it's about a procedure for your kid. P/A in the ER was a straight-up asshole when I questioned if a x-ray of my daughter was strictly necessary.)
The current year is a high deductible plan (as all of mine have been since starting self-employment in 2004) but is not HSA-eligible. (Most years we've had an HSA-eligible plan, but some years none were available or they were vastly more expensive than the non-HSA eligible, which makes no sense.) We found a way to get an employer-sponsored plan thru my LLC this year and that dropped the premiums to just under $12K w/ a $13.6K family deductible. The marketplace plan we were on last year, had we renewed for 2019, would have been $17.5K in premiums w/ the same deductible. Neither is HSA-eligible.
I was punching some numbers into Covered California marketplace and for $12K you could get some pretty good plans. And if you qualify for the subsidy it is much lower. Some of the HMO plans have no or low deductibles.
Sounds like California has a much nicer market than we do in Ohio. I had one provider to choose from in the Marketplace for my county in 2019. Their "Silver" plan was what we had in 2018, chosen over the "Bronze" because the lower-priced "Bronze" was 20% co-insurance on inpatient care versus 100% coverage after deductible on "Siler". Aside from that company's plans those who purchased on the Marketplace in my county for 2019 had no other choices.
