We Didn't Give Up

I have some news. It's big news. Some might think I should not share this publicly. Some might think it's bragging. Most already think I'm crazy... But I don't care.

Here's the build up...

So before Daddy and I became pregnant with Addison, we wanted to be sure she would have medical coverage. It was important. I am still able to be covered under my mom's insurance plan, but Daddy is not because of his age (that old man has another birthday coming up too :P). So Daddy has his own personal insurance which covers basic medical needs. As a young family, we couldn't afford all the bells and whistles of a better insurance plan. But Daddy is a pretty healthy guy and we figured we would be ok. We also understood that the law in Georgia requires a newborn to be covered under the mother for 30 days after delivery. I have pretty outstanding insurance through my mom and we thought this would be great for any needs Addison would have after birth. Just to be sure, we called the benefits supervisors to ensure that Addison would have coverage with my plan for those 30 days.

So here we are, tra-la-la, going to have a baby. Pregnancy had been going perfectly normal... well until... you know...

Then Addison was born. Major complications. All of a sudden, my plan DOESN'T want to cover her. And here we are, praying for our daughter's life AND trying to figure out insurance issues. Perhaps I shouldn't say we, because my saint of a husband was the one dealing with them, taking care of me, and trying to stay sane (as we all were).

Now I will take a moment and say GMC was amazing at being patient and delicate with us. They were never pushy or rude. Many of them even follow this blog ;).

So just to get something done, we put Addison on Daddy's plan. $2,000 a day. And that was not going to cut it. We had no idea what we would do. For the time though, we had to stay focused on Addison. The money didn't matter. It never mattered. I'd rather live on the streets than not have those few days with my baby.

So the hardest weekend of our life passed. We went home and faced this gigantic bill along with the tremendous grief of losing Addison. We were starting to prepare to become the charity case of the community. But Daddy didn't back down. He contacted one of his professors who had worked with legal information regarding medical coverage. They found a law and sent it to my medical plan. Btw, those people were not nice at all. It was whatever they could do to NOT cover Addison.

So we got my Mom's company involved, and they agreed, Addison should have coverage. For several weeks they fought back and forth with the insurance. My Mom's company even said that if the insurance wouldn't cover, they would because that was the intent of their benefits plan.

We had to let go. We had to put it in someone else's hands. We were never scared of being poor. We knew people and the hospital would help us. Still, each week I would check on the progress.

On May 9th we received a bill from the hospital. It was for the full cost of Addison's treatment. I was scared that it hadn't worked. The insurance was not going to pay. I decided to look online to see if there was a payment plan that could be set up. This is what I saw when I got to the account details...

If you can't read that, it shows that Addison's total charges were $81,591.92. I believe this was after Daddy's insurance paid a little because it was originally just under $85,000. You are also able to see the cost of my medical treatment which wasn't cheap either at $22,310.

All has been paid. 100% (accept for my tiny little co-pay of $300 which we were expecting anyway). It has been a miracle.

Daddy didn't give up. Mommy didn't give up. Addison didn't give up.

We are so thankful for this miracle. Thank you also to those who thought to pray for our finances as well as this trauma.

Thank you,

Addison's Mommy