<prompt> Human: Hello, pf is my daily bedtime reading and I have tried very hard to be in a financially secure situation, but after several unforeseen problems I am feeling overwhelmed with the bills that I see coming. I am trying to come up with a plan. My brain is fried due to stress and lack of sleep, sorry for the brain dump format and any poor english. nbsp;My situation in September: Long time girlfriend is pregnant, due around christmas. We have been looking for a house for a year and finally find something we like. Inspection shows house needing some immediate work and some future 1-2 years work I reduced down payment from 20 to cover immediate work and to pad emergency fund for baby and unknown house problems. nbsp;October: Settle on house and start getting quotes for things I can not do myself, everything is within my expected prices, no surprises. One contractor turned out to be unlicensed and illegal, he screwed me out of a few grand, do not think suing is worth it, life lesson learned We aim to be moved in before thanksgiving nbsp;Now: Baby is suddenly born 7 weeks early2.5 days ago and placed in NICU, Luckily no major problems yet. Google says pre-insurance hospital bill will be in the 30k-200k range, and is one problem away from the 400k-1M range We find out the in-network hospital has an out of network NICU for both of us We each have our own employer sponsored insurance with similar coverage, out of network max out of pocket is 12k for both I still have contractors doing work on house that have not been paid, about 10K outstanding, it will be livable. There is some optional cosmetic work that I can put off. I have 50k in my bank account right now, 5k on credit card from past month 15, and a 10k outstanding bill for house work. I expect very large medical bills in my gfs name to start arriving in the next month. She has very little savings and has 14 the income as me. Google says it will take 6 months to 2 years or more for the dust to settle between insurance and bills. I do not know how I will mentally handle having this unknown financial burden over my head for that long. We are not moved in yet, I am trying to move everything in the next week with out help from herbut help from family and friends. Current lease is over at the end of the month. nbsp;Future: My current inclination right not is to keep every cent that I can in my bank account for the next few months until I have a better idea of what is happening. All elective spending stops, no eating out, no new toys, etc Try to finance the 10k contractor bill and any future contractor bills. Stop paying credit cards off each month and start living off credit cards only. I estimate the opportunity cost of using credit vs cash for everything for 6 months will be 3k. I would then pay everything in a lump sum whenif the situation is better. I do not know which insurance to put the baby on, The original plan was to put her on my insurance since I will be claiming her as a dependent. We are both talking to our insurance companies and HR departments to see if there are any major differences. I have about 3k of monthly income left after taxes, retirement and mortgage payment. I plan to cover all of the medical expenses for the birth. I am worried about becoming legally liable for the expenses in case we try to use her lack of incomeassets as a bargaining chip. Dunno if that is possible. Also worried about making a bad decision now that ends up costing 10k or more extra. nbsp;That is my plan right now. I am looking for suggestions from people with clear minds. Thanks.  <response>: We find out the in-network hospital has an out of network NICU for both of usSimilar to emergency room visits, insurance companies often will make an exemption for things like this. NICU is not optional and you dont generally get to choose which NICU you end up in. They should apply your in-network deductible and out-of-pocket max despite the NICU being out-of-network. Contact each of your insurance providers to verify that this is the case. 