It's your baby: free market works in Kentucky

In Kentucky, only one individual health insurer covers maternity care. A 22 year old woman seeking health insurance with maternity coverage must pay premiums through a 12 month waiting period. The cost of this rider on an Anthem $2500 deductible plan with 0% coinsurance is $51.37 a month.

That's $1078.77 in premium for 12 months waiting period plus nine months gestation. Add on the $2500 deductible and you are over the market price Lexington OB/GYNs charge to deliver your baby.

It's clearly cheaper to skip maternity coverage and negotiate a cash price with your doctor. 

Incidentally, I called Dr. Blake Bradley in Lexington today. He delivered my fifteen year old son for a $2000 fee we negotiated at the beginning of my wife's pregnancy. His current price is slightly more than $2100.

Under ObamaCare, this free market success story will be a thing of the past. And if Governor Beshear intends to leave the free market intact in the event of a Supreme Court ruling against ObamaCare, he needs to make that clear right away. Otherwise, it certainly looks like he wants to push us to the left on healthcare regardless of what the Supremes say.