Teachers Health withdrawing their Homebirth package

[Arcadia]

I just rang our health fund to find out exactly what our cover was for homebirth, to be told it is being scrapped as of April 1st! I was pretty shocked and explained the only reason we went with top cover was because of the homebirth package, which is $1500 and is for ante and post natal care with an independent midwife.

Anyway, I thought I should put it here in case anyone has Teachers Health and is planning a homebirth.

*Sigh* who is still offering cover for Independent Midwives?

[Nelle]

Oh no! Do they make exceptions? That's so dumb. What if you go over? Maths not my forte...how far would you be by April?

[*Ash*]

Oh that's really bad news. That is such a backward step. Hopefully you are not the only person to express disappointment with their decision. Hopefully they are swamped with complaints from their members.

Woah, you will still make it. What a relief!

[*Ash*]

Oh no! Do they make exceptions? That's so dumb. What if you go over? Maths not my forte...how far would you be by April?

Good point! I was just assuming that Arcadia would still be entitled to the rebate because she had already paid her midwife. For both my homebirths, I had paid my midwife by 36 weeks. Am I making the correct assumption Arcadia?

[Nelle]

Oh that would be good - I don't know about organised homebirth, I've only done it by happy accident.

[Arcadia]

Thanks for the concern Nelle You're right Ash, I will pay the invoice asap and then put the claim in before April 1st. Lucky really since I *might* not make the deadline...my due date is 27 March (ticker is a bit out) so I am cutting it fine.

I think my midwife will have medicare cover soon too, so with any luck I might be able to make a claim through Medicare as well. not really suyre how that works though???

[*Ash*]

Oh that's good Arcadia. Get that paperwork in ASAP! I don't know how the Medicare system operates in relation to home birth either. My last homebirth was 2009. But I'm hoping to have another one later this year or next year...So I will have to look in to it eventually.
Nelle, I will have to go looking for your accidental homebirth story, I'm intrigued. Oh I'm just assuming it's on BB?

[LionsandBears]

We have Australian Unity cover for homebirth. Unfortunately, we were only covered if the baby was born within our policy time. He was born 5 days too early to be covered. They cover up to $3000 for a homebirth or $560 for ante/post natal visit from a midwife. You have to write ahead for approval though.

[Nelle]

Nah it's not Ash - I don't remember much about it, lol. There's not much to 50 minutes. I can abbreviate in here: Irregular insane contractions, first 30mins panic, needing to push, relief, baby born. I probably didn't write it up because by the time the ambulance got me to hospital I'd lost a lot of blood and was in a pretty bad way, and it was pretty mentally difficult from there, I was processing for months. xo (sorry for the slight hijack there)

I wonder if Medicare covering some homebirth midwives will mean private cover drops off, or if it will make private companies see homebirth as a more acceptable thing to cover?

[*Ash*]

Oh Nelle, your experience sounds really intense, both physically and mentally. Was it your first baby? Were you on your own? Thanks for sharing your experience, I appreciate it.

Tashy, $3000 sounds like a good rebate. Is the approval process difficult to satisfy? How do they decide who they will approve?

[mumiloo]

Hi there, I haven't been on these forums for ages but found your post Arcadia when I was searching for information about this change as we have been affected too- planning our first homebirth for later this year

I have phoned and written a formal complaint to Teachers Health and would like to urge anyone else affected or who is a member who cares about this (eg even if you don't need the service yourself or might need it in the future) to contact them too. Maybe if they get enough letters they will realise that even though not many people use this rebate, the people who do use it really appreciate it and value it.

You can contact them through their website there is a "feedback" section there and people can take complaints on the phone too. They said they will respond within 5 working days.

In my letter I pointed out:
- it is not fair to suddenly withdraw the rebate with hardly any notice, affecting people who are already pregnant and have booked a midwife, it is probably too late to change insurers at this stage due to waiting periods etc
- if the service is not used much, it can't be costing them much money, so why scrap it?
- homebirth probably saves them money, as members can claim for hospital birth and many hospital births would probably be a lot more expensive (eg especially if you end up with a c-sec and anethesist fees, 5 day hospital stay etc)

Thank you xxx

[Arcadia]

Oh no mumiloo! Its really crap, and I think they should give us AT LEAST 9 months notice, especially since we have to wait 12 months for the cover to be effective (we missed out on DD's homebirth because of this technicality).

It makes me so mad! I will certainly get onto their website.

Best wishes with your homebirth.

[mumiloo]

Thanks Arcadia, and all the best for your homebirth too! :-)

[masonwriting]

Hello,
Just wanted to share my experience with Teachers Health Fund and tell you not to give up if you have insurance with them and wish to access the homebirth benefits. I was paying for Top Extras and was already pregnant when they sent out the information that homebirth benefits were being withdrawn in May, giving only 2 months' notice. So, I have written about three emails to them and finally they have agreed to pay homebirth benefits for my upcoming birth in late Dec/ early Jan. The problem I found was that although Australian Unity have awesome homebirth benefits, you have to be a member with them for 12 months and the only other place I could find was ahm and the same thing applies (their benefits not as good though). I explained to THF how disgraceful I found it that they had left me with no choice to even move to another fund with such short notice and I encourage others not to give up. Two months' notice is ridiculous! Boo THF!

[Jennifer13]

I'm with Aust Unity who still pay for HB. But you need to have had over for 12 mths and give them written notice at 20 weeks of your intention. We will have held cover for 12 mths by Sept this year, since we transferred from another fund that didn't offer HB. We will def be dropping back from top level after the birth, we don't have any need for it otherwise.