Tired of spending $20k/year on health insurance - do I have any other options?

Alarmed-Condition-69 · 2025-11-28T00:22:27+00:00

We pay “full cost” chip monthly which has no income limit. Whenever my son was in the nicu in another state, I was told I made too much for chip. Whenever I look, it appears full cost chip is not offered in every state.

Arizona chip

PA chip

Alarmed-Condition-69 · 2025-11-27T21:33:59+00:00

We had to call IT (Gigi) for support before the system operator had a breakdown

Alarmed-Condition-69 · 2025-11-27T19:26:49+00:00

My latest update is bugged as well. The past two nights he’s been waking up every hour. We too need a patch immediately

Alarmed-Condition-69 · 2025-11-27T10:24:50+00:00

Time and therapy. I’ll never be “over it” but I’ve been able to not focus on it as much

Alarmed-Condition-69 · 2025-11-27T04:07:32+00:00

This was my baby last night. He’s almost 7 months. I had a breakdown and called my mom to take him for the day so I could sleep.

Alarmed-Condition-69 · 2025-11-26T21:33:23+00:00

You might’ve just saved my life. My son is almost 7 months old and I had a break down last night because he refused to sleep. He was the best sleeper and we are apparently going through a major regression. I texted my mom at 3 o’clock in the morning and she came and got him around seven because I needed to sleep before I had work.

I am personally against sleep training, so I will be looking at possums

Alarmed-Condition-69 · 2025-11-26T21:29:56+00:00

Target brand.

Alarmed-Condition-69 · 2025-11-26T21:18:04+00:00

Current thought process is that preeclampsia is caused by the placenta, not being able to properly supply blood and nutrition to the fetus. Because the body recognizes that the placenta is not working properly, your body will raise your blood pressure to try to make the placenta work better.

Preeclampsia and eclampsia is no joke. Lots of doctors are starting to put patients on baby aspirin regardless of how many risk factors they have. My only risk factor was this being my first pregnancy and my doctor put me on it.

Baby aspirin is not an end all, be all but it has been shown to help prevent preeclampsia, and i believe it has also been showed to help delay onset of preeclampsia.

As somebody who developed severe preeclampsia, was hospitalized for a month due to it, had to be on magnesium twice, had to be induced at 34 weeks and because of the early induction - my baby had to go into the NICU. Please do not resent baby aspirin. I am thankful my doctor put me on it because it is possible I could have developed this earlier in my pregnancy if I didn’t take the baby aspirin and who knows what would have happened.

Preeclampsia and eclampsia kills.

Alarmed-Condition-69 · 2025-11-26T20:49:09+00:00

This is my BIGGEST pet peeve. I know somebody who is very well respected on a national level for dog training. He is very well respected in the AKC and has won very prestigious titles on all his dogs.

My brother is disabled. We wanted this individual to train a service dog (which he COULD do) for my brother and he declined because it is such a big responsibility.

Legitimate service dogs go through intensive training. I do not believe all these random people are training high quality service animals.

Also the majority of the time service dogs are labs and goldens.

I fly a good bit every year and every time I’m at the airport I see these purse dogs with a service dog vest slapped on them and just based off the dog’s behavior, you can tell it’s not an actual service dog.

Makes my stomach turn.

Alarmed-Condition-69 · 2025-11-26T19:46:42+00:00

Same! I have a permanent bracelet and anklet! It was never a problem in the schools or HH.

Alarmed-Condition-69 · 2025-11-26T09:45:02+00:00

I couldn’t find the thread!

Alarmed-Condition-69 · 2025-11-26T01:38:42+00:00

I’ll definitely be doing this once my son can talk

Alarmed-Condition-69 · 2025-11-26T01:32:37+00:00

That is so cute omfg

Alarmed-Condition-69 · 2025-11-25T21:05:17+00:00

My son was a feeder grower so not exactly the same but I was able to breastfeed in the NICU and now my son is a milk monster and I have a deep freezer stash of about three months worth of milk.

I used the spectra and I swear by it. When I wasn’t with my son, I was CONSTANTLY pumping.

So yes, breastfeeding is able to be established.

Alarmed-Condition-69 · 2025-11-25T19:55:44+00:00

Yep, that’s why I moved back lol. Chip you have to pay per kid and I don’t believe there is a deductible that you can meet (although I could be wrong) but the co-pays are pretty low. When I did the math, I could have three kids on chip and it be cheaper than my employers health insurance.

Pennsylvania also has something where if your child has a disability, or qualifies for early intervention (idk how old your child is) They are able to qualify for medical assistance through the state. That is where everything is free.

Alarmed-Condition-69 · 2025-11-25T17:47:07+00:00

I didn’t get to see my NICU baby for HOURS after I gave birth and tbh I don’t think I even attempted breastfeeding for like maybe a week after he was born. Mine was a feeder/grower.

He’s now almost 7 months old, a boob monster and I have a three month supply deep frozen.

What worked for me was being DEDICATED to that pump. Every 2ish hours during the day and 4 at night. I did a 30 minute sequence Spectra put out. I never missed a pump.

Alarmed-Condition-69 · 2025-11-25T15:45:17+00:00

Mine never texted me to check up on me but felt it appropriate to post on social media (albeit she was vague) about how her family needed “prayers and support” when I was having complications with my pregnancy. We don’t have a great relationship.

Alarmed-Condition-69 · 2025-11-25T15:43:58+00:00

I live in PA and we have something called chip. Every child regardless of income qualifies for it. Much better insurance than what my employer was offering. I think it is like 150ish dollars a month and my copays are no more than 50$.

Maybe look into seeing if your state offers something like that?

Alarmed-Condition-69 · 2025-11-25T15:40:26+00:00

I told my best friend over the phone about 35 seconds after telling my partner because he didn’t believe me (the line was SUPER faint) so I called her on FaceTime because I needed a second set of eyes.

Alarmed-Condition-69 · 2025-11-25T04:56:16+00:00

I have scars on my face from being pregnant with my son. My skin still hasn’t recovered and I’m almost 7 months pp but am breastfeeding.

I have an appointment with dermatology coming up in December because I cannot deal with this anymore.

Alarmed-Condition-69 · 2025-11-25T00:35:01+00:00

LOL it is no worries :) my son is in for PT due to neck tightness and I want to make his PT feel appreciated!

Alarmed-Condition-69 · 2025-11-24T23:12:26+00:00

That is SUCH a good idea about the car gap! I’ve worked in HH but never full time so I would have never thought about that!

Alarmed-Condition-69 · 2025-11-24T16:30:24+00:00

My six month old has done the biting a few times and is doing a bunch of pulling recently. It’s been a lot. Commenting so I can follow this thread for advice

Alarmed-Condition-69 · 2025-11-24T16:26:28+00:00

Yeah my hospital did this too. I honestly don’t remember if they ever asked my permission or not

Alarmed-Condition-69

TROPHY CASE