Teachers Health withdrawing their Homebirth package

[*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paying for Top Extras and was already pregnant when they sent out the information that homebirth benefits were being withdrawn in May, giving only 2 months' notice.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!