by Sandra Wilson
If you have decided that you want your tubes untied to either have another child or for relief of post tubal ligation syndrome, then funding for tubal reversal becomes one of your major considerations. With tubal reversals being in the thousands and tens of thousands of dollars, most women cannot afford to pay the costs out of pocket.
This means most women will be searching for some other way to come up with the requisite money to pay the doctor’s fees and all other associated costs such as the anesthesiologist and surgical facility. While having the full amount in one’s bank account would be the best scenario, it usually doesn’t happen that way. There are more or less eight ways to come up with the amount of your tubal reversal costs.
Let’s start our list with the old tried and true savings account. In this you will put “extra” money. If you have a jar to catch the extra change you hate to carry in your purse or your husband hates to carry in his pocket, empty it every week into your savings account. Look around for whatever ways you can find of cutting costs in your home and add these savings to your account. The web and the libraries are full of information and books on budgeting and living frugally. You might even consider having a savings account set up just as your tubal reversal fund. Nothing gets pulled from it till it’s time to pay the doctor.
Next is a version of the first in that you will end up saving to come up with the full amount. In this version, you go out and get a job. If necessary, you get a second job. Then put that money aside into your savings account till you have the full amount all saved up.
If you use a top notch surgeon like Dr. Gary S. Berger of Chapel Hill Tubal Reversal Center, you will be able to create a payment plan with his office. This begins with an initial payment of $250 to open the account. After that, you send in payments of any amount you want or can as often as you would like. If you can, do it weekly. That gets the money out of your hands and into a special account where you can’t dip into it for the winter snow tires or whatever. Think of it as a special baby layaway plan.
Some women use their family’s income tax refund to pay for the tubal reversal surgery. Depending upon your personal situation, you might have to wait a few years if just depending upon a tax refund. This is why some will use their tax refund to supplement their savings plan.
When you begin thinking of funding for tubal reversal, the first thought is usually, “Will my health insurance pay for it?” This will vary from provider to provider and state to state. You can try reading through your insurance policy but may still not know the answer. Most often, insurance will not pay for it but some might pay for parts. Even calling your insurance company could get you the run around with one person saying yes and another saying no. If you do get a person on the other end of the phone saying yes then make darn sure you get that in writing before going in for surgery thinking it’s all covered. Be sure.
As this is an elective procedure you probably won’t get insurance coverage for it. But there just might be a way around it. You could try having your primary care physician state in writing that you need to have your tubes repaired. This might work if your reason for a tubal ligation reversal is due to post tubal ligation syndrome and your doctor is willing to help you. Repair work on your tubes, rather than a tubal reversal, might just be the secret words. Then again, if your insurance has a cap on how much you have to pay toward your health expenses, it might pick up whatever amount over that cap the surgery puts you. These are by no means sure methods, but they just might work.
Another method you might investigate is if you or your spouse has a flexible spending account available through your place of employment. With some, you can spend the money ahead of time before you actually have it all in the account. As this is pulled from your paycheck before you even see it, it could be a good way to come up with some of the money. One concern though is any limits on the amount and whether it will roll over from one year to the next or how much will roll over. Check out the particulars of your own account during your enrollment season.
Something else that may be available through your employment is taking out your 401(k) or an IRA. You know you will pay a penalty and there is the further penalty of that money now not working to build your retirement. You have to decide if withdrawing this money is more important to your family.
Of course, no talk of financing would be complete without addressing using credit cards. Unlike most of what we discussed above, this one will put you into debt. You will have to decide if it is good debt or bad debt. If your physician won’t accept your credit card, you could try taking out a cash advance. Some credit cards will even give you checks you can write out just like a normal check but the amount you write it out for will be added to your credit card balance. Check and see what interest rates you will be paying for these checks or a cash advance.
Hopefully one of the above ideas will be the right funding for tubal reversal for you. Decide upon the one that best fits your lifestyle and situation. Only you know what is right for you.
About the Author:
Learn about
funding for tubal reversal options, please visit Dr. Berger’s site http://www.tubal-reversal.net/. For more articles by the author regarding the subject please browse our site on
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