With the arrival of Baby Ninja in the rear view mirror, Girl Ninja and I are starting to receive a hefty amount of mail from my insurance company. All the hospital visits, the labor and delivery, the lactation consultations, the pediatric appointments, and medications; are looking for their cut of pie. Every time I check the mail a little part of me dies inside.
I think to myself, “Ah crap, how much is Baby Ninja gonna cost us.”
The answer…
Ten dollars.
Yup, just ten George Washington’s is all it took to bring Baby Ninja in to this world.
Your income is more than just your income.
While I may never earn a six figure salary in my government job, sometimes I have to remind myself that my total compensation package is MORE than just the salary I receive.
Like having access to great health insurance. While many of my friends have had to shell out thousands of dollars in medical costs for their labor and delivery, Girl Ninja and I have been able to rest easy the last nine months knowing that $10 was all we would have to pay.
Why $10 you ask?
Well, when Girl Ninja found out she was pregnant back in October she scheduled a maternity appointment with her OB/GYN. That first appointment had a $10 co-pay. Every other appointment since then has been 100% covered by my health insurance. No copays or out-of-pockets for anything.
Do you know how awesome it was to see a $4,000 medical bill indicate my financial obligation was $0.00?!
It felt like this..
Today I’m not only thankful for having a sweet job, but benefits that rock my world.
Do you have any sweet work benefits? I know the tech industry is infamous for crazy perks.
Oh and here are a few more shots of Baby Ninja now that he doesn’t look quite so weird…
Turn your audio up 😉
Great benefits! Baby Ninja is still very small but he kinda looks like you. What a precious little boy! Wish him a healthy, long and prosperous life…
What a great point. We had similar coverage for my first child, but I chose to forgo it and have the baby with a midwife at a non-hospital birthing center. But my insurance still covered quite a bit of it. This time around – nada.
It’s a point I’ve made to my husband – should he find another job at some point, we might actually take a small pay cut and come out ahead if the insurance is better.
Congrats! You have a cutie 🙂
Go Baby Ninja! Already learned the ways of his Papa Ninja and punched Medical Debt in the face!
I have awesome benefits at my employer as well (government in Canada). In fact, I have medication that I take weekly, and the cost of that drug each and every month is $2000. My employer benefits pays 100% of that cost, meaning I can maintain my health without having to worry about how I’m going to pay for it.
On top of that, I have to pay for it up front with my credit card, and then I am reimbursed by my benefits company, so I’m scoring 2X the points on my cc for a transaction that will be full reimbursed! Double win!!
First, awww what a sweet pea little Ninja is!
Those are amazing health care benefits, and you’re right, it’s good to keep in mind the value of all the benefits you might receive from your employer. My health insurance used to be stellar like that, I had a major surgery that included a trip to emergency care and the whole thing cost me $50. These days the same occurrence would cost me thousands more but I’m still happy to have decent insurance.
My favorite benefits here are a mix of financial and non: a pension (which they’ve ceased giving out going forward), I get to wear jeans to the office, and summer hours on Friday (leave at 1:00).
I had a baby four months ago.
I paid $12k out of pocket – because the second my son was born, he was a new family member, and subject to his own deductible, and his own out of pocket max.
Ugh.
Good benefits are a major part of a compensation PACKAGE. You are right, income isn’t everything!
Our little bundle of joy cost us exactly $28 dollars, and that was for the STD test, if you must know. We have Tricare since my husband is in the national guard, and my work benefits suck. It was super scared when I found out I was pregnant because of money, but thank goodness for good benefits!
Baby ninja is so adorbs I could just cry about it.
No baby ninjas for me, yet. But when the fiance and I decide to have kids there’s no doubt in my mind that my company insurance will cover 100% of the costs. WIN. My company also pays for Short Term Disability, which is 60% of my salary for the duration of my maternity leave. WIN. And I’ll get an office baby shower and receive something like $1,000 in gifts from my co-workers. WIN.
And should my man and I have trouble conceiving, my insurance plan covers seven rounds of fertility treatments. SEVEN. Holy crap WIN.
That’s cool but I’m guessing that pretty much anybody not employed by the goverment isn’t so lucky. I think our kids cost around a grand each in medical costs when all was said and done.
That does remind me of a somewhat similar and humorous story. I had two hernia operations back in roughly 2000 and 2002. The first one cost a few hundred dollars and the second cost….zero. They had improved our insurance, which was great, but come to find out that the office manager did so pretty much because he had a huge family and was tired of paying too high of co-pays.
We just had our second little one…. she spent 9 days in the NICU (one less than my last kid). Glad my wife has pretty solid health insurance because at around $6K a day the NICU is pricey.
Awee man! Baby Ninja is absolutely adorable. Those benefits rock! I thought I had good ones since my job pays $100, I do not have a bi-weekly deductible for my health, life, nor dental insurance. But my co-pays aren’t $10. I wont complain, but Props!
Congratulations.
Baby Ninja is so precious! And you have some amazing benefits! I keep hearing about how expensive the labor costs are, so this is great for you!
I’m also a federal employee so we have the same awesome benefits.
I’d like to add: compressed work schedules
Now don’t forget that if you lived in our wonderful country called Canada your hospital stay would cost you zero dollars because everything would be covered under provincial health care funding. it’s a great feeling to walk into the hospital and know that you would never have to make any decisions regarding the care of your new little one based on whether or not you could afford it.
Aaaw, what a beautiful little guy!
My husband’s work benefits suck. They recently cut our premium in half, which was nice, but we still have a $2,000 family deductible ($1,000 per individual) and have to pay all labs out of pocket. So, for this pregnancy we’ll pay at least $1,000 for all the related costs for me and once the little guy is born, he’ll have to meet his own deductible before insurance kicks in. Gah!
Having good health benefits definitely helped in the delivery of my son as well. Our company gives us a little breakdown of how much compensations we REALLY get based on tax savings, health and various other benefits. My salary looks $15-20K higher that way!
I work at a fancy private university and the benefits are outrageous. Matching 401k after 3 months AND traditional pension after 3 years. Tuition assistance begins immediately, 3 weeks of paid vacation first year and 4 weeks after that, plus a dozen paid holidays. Birth of my son was completely covered as well. Then there are the countless other benefits–subsidized transportation, discounts around town, etc. No complaints!!
Lovely, how sweet baby ninja is!!! 🙂 My hubs have a good health benefits insurance too, me and my daughter are also covered too.