Having a baby at end of year

Hello! I’m due to have my first child this December and am currently paying for insurance through my employer for both myself and my husband but it’s a bit pricey (I think I’m paying like $150/week for both of us and I only make $40k/yr.) I’m on the second tier plan as we did plan to potentially have a baby this year when I signed us up last year, but I wonder if we’ll even hit the deductible ($6k individual, $8k-ish OOPmax individual, not even close to hitting either). I don’t get paid maternity leave so I’m kind of dreading the amount of money I’ll owe for insurance payments by the time I can get back to work.

I’m wondering what changes to make to my coverage, if any, when the baby is born. Can I temporarily get onto state Medicaid (Arizona) while I’m not making money? My boss recommended I just take my husband off the insurance completely since we’re still young but I don’t think that’s the best financial decision… (god forbid he give me the raise he’s been dangling in front of me for years to help my financial situation out though that’s for another subreddit lol). I thought about trying to get a marketplace plan instead but they seem to be just as expensive as the employer plans.

Besides the Medicaid thing, my biggest questions are: Will any care for the baby count towards his own individual deductible or will it count towards mine or the family one? Will our premium payments go up when I add him? Can I change my coverage level when he’s born or are we stuck on the same tier? If I can change the tier, how does that affect our deductibles? And since the changes are happening after the enrollment period (he’s due 12/5), am I stuck with whatever decisions we make until the end of 2025? Should I make my enrollment period decisions based off of that?

submitted by /u/monicasm
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