Dear New Mom

**This is the first in a series where I will address expectant and new moms and try to pass along advice or helpful hints especially geared toward those special first days.**

Dear New Mom,

Add your new baby to your health insurance.

I thought you just picked your baby's name while you were at the hospital and there wasn't really any other paperwork involved. Wrong. There will be all kinds of paperwork to fill out while you endure the rollercoaster that is the first 48 hours as a new mom. Yes, a lovely representative from the Social Security Department will tell you that you must name your child before you leave the hospital and they will ask you several times to spell that name until you start to feel self conscious.
Is this name that hard to spell?? I mean, I thought it was a nice name, but why is she asking me over and over again if this is really the name I've chosen for this tiny human. I mean, I think that's her name. Unique, but not weird. It's a family name, ok, lay off! Can I change it later? And I have to pay for a birth certificate? whaaat?
One of those hundreds of papers you get at the hospital (it's not that many) will be a Birth Verification Form. This is not the same as a birth certificate. The birth certificate will come in the mail later. This form is the one with basically the same information as a birth certificate, but you have it in your hands when you leave the hospital. Your insurance company needs this form to be able to add the new baby to your insurance. I believe you have something like 10 days to get this done. If you FORGET ::ahem, ahem:: even if you don't realize that you forgot, your baby will not have health insurance.
That form looks something like this:

I forgot to do this with our first child. My husband was a full time student and I was working at the time. I did take maternity leave, though, so I didn't go back to work until I had to. The folks in HR needed this paper and I didn't realize that she was not on our health insurance plan until she was about 5 months old. We had a mild panic attack together in our little townhome, and realized that she could have catastrophic health insurance with a $1000 deductible in case something horrible happened, so we immediately added that via State Farm. Fortunately, she only had well visits, but there were several of those in that first 5 months. Then, she couldn't officially be added to our health insurance until Open Enrollment in October, and that wouldn't kick in until January. Just, save yourself the hassle and put that sweet little bundle of joy on your health insurance plan if you've got one. Our other two children had health insurance for the first 8 months of their lives because I knew to hold onto that paper and those well visits cost much, much less.

Lesson Learned!