I don’t know what the cost for my insurer was, because we never even got a bill in the mail. I even called the financial office or whatever it’s called for Kaiser and made sure we didn’t owe anything and they said that we were covered and owed nothing out of pocket.

My post was a reflection of my own personal anecdote because I see stuff online all the time that insurance is terrible in the US and that we all pay $20k for a birth when that isn’t the case for everyone. I mean if the average is $18k then someone is definitely paying that amount(or more, because average) but some also pay zero. My post wasn’t meant to diminish. I also think all of this should be free for everyone anyway.

I do also think some people pay more than they have to, as in they are having unprotected sex and can switch to a HMO over a PPO, but they stay on the PPO plan because it’s “cheap” and end up paying $20k for a birth when they could’ve switched to a HMO before hand and paid the $50-$500 a month(depending on employer or if your state has a marketplace) and saved the difference. But they don’t think that far ahead.

Reminds me of my workplace (I’m the trolley and others are jumping on the tracks)

I just had two kids back to back. Both born in California and at Kaiser. The only thing we had to pay for was my wife’s post-partum medication, I think $50 total between both kids.

All prenatal appointments/care? Covered. Two separate scares where wife was admitted overnight? Covered. Both births with epidurals and overnight stays and meals(for mom)? Covered. We didn’t even pay for parking.

Idk if it’s because we planned this and intentionally had a HMO plan, but wanted to share my recent experience.

Same, my wife quickly figured out that my Old Spice lasted longer than anything she’s ever bought before.

She’d have to apply her old deodorant 2-3 times throughout the day(working an office job). But the old spice? Once in the morning and she didn’t have to worry about it again unless she worked out after work.

Now her sister and her mom use old spice for the same reasons.

It’s all in moderation. Eating 8 or so eggs scrambled every morning probably isn’t healthy for you either. But 2-3 eggs, some toast with decent butter, and some fruit is more sensible. Maybe swap it with yogurt and granola one morning.

Personally if I’m even hungry in the morning I go light and have plain toast, or I get a loaf of rosemary sourdough from the store and have that untoasted. If I’m hungry I do the yogurt combo.

My main pet peeve is cooking and eating for hours…I don’t feel like cooking breakfast for 1-2 hours(pancakes from scratch, eggs, bacon, etc.) and then eat for another hour and now it’s already lunch time and I still haven’t cleaned up from breakfast.

If I do a “lumberjack” type of breakfast then I go out to eat because I ain’t dealing with the kitchen for that lol.