By SPENCER WARD
The decision to have a baby could be a source of financial stress to many students. In Utah, a few options are available to make the financing more feasible.
An obstetrician generally charges about $1,500, the anesthesiologists about $700 and the hospital about $2,500. There is a bill for both the mother’s and the baby’s stay, said Anton Garrity, spokesman for IHC.
Agencies exist to help pay those bills, beyond or even in place of insurance coverage.
Baby Your Baby is financed through Medicaid and a Health Maintenance Organization. It is available as a back-up insurance provider to cover the charges not covered by your primary insurance provider.
Baby Your Baby is based on income and family size, said Jackie Black, Family Health Bureau director.
“It includes home visitation by an RN who does teaching and also community referral,” Black said.
Pregnancies with high-risk factors are case-managed through an HMO, Black said. If expectant parents have maternity coverage through their insurance companies, then the HMO will not cover them.
Black recommends that expectant parents seek early prenatal care and call Baby Your Baby to see if they are eligible.
Aaron and Carrie Walser of Provo say they have benefited from this program along with the Medicaid coverage.
“We could not have had kids without it,” Aaron Walser said.
“I look at some of these bills, and I’m just glad that I don’t have to pay them,” Carrie Walser said.
The Walsers said they participated in the Baby Your Baby and Medicaid programs, which worked so well together that they seemed to be the same thing.
Medicaid is one of 32 different types of medical programs available through the Bureau of Health Care Financing.
“We’re not an insurance company. We provide state and federal medical coverage. Your insurance company is responsible for the bill, and we pay a percentage of what’s left over,” said a source at the Department of Health Care Financing.
“We don’t pay 100 percent of everything, they just accept what we pay. Those bills will not go back to the students,” said the Health Care Financing agent.
Women, Infants and Children is another organization that exists for the care of new mothers and their children.
WIC is federally funded and available throughout the United States, said Karla Kelly, secretary of the Utah County Division of WIC.
“The targets are infants and children before birth,” Kelly said.
Prenatal nutrition and proper nutrition for a breastfeeding mom and baby are crucial to the baby’s development, Kelly said.
Participants must live in an area served by WIC, which is all of Utah County, and meet the income guideline, which is 180 percent of the poverty level, Kelly said.
“WIC is for people working to make ends meet. It is not a welfare program, but a food supplement program,” Kelly said.
“We want to make sure that a baby gets the nutrients necessary for proper brain development. We provide education and supplemental food that is high in nutrients that will help in the proper development of the child,” Kelly said.
Most people hear about the program through word of mouth. There are 9,000 clients in Utah County, Kelly said.
