I'm a new postdoc here, with my wife. Our health insurance will be mostly (or completely, depending on the plan we are to take) paid by U.C. However, we're having difficulty in choosing a medical plan among those provided by U.C. (e.g. Health Net, Kaiser, PacifiCare, UC Care). We're living in El Cerrito, and plan to have a baby soon. Could you please kindly provide us with some suggestions regarding which plan to take, which medical group to join, which PCP to register to, etc. After some study of the information provided by U.C., we still feel very much confused.... I think planning on having a baby is our primary concern.

Using them, you can pick your OB/GYN and pediatrician from one of the groups (around here it is Alta Bates or Hill Physicians (lots of recs on the UCB Parents Web Site)) and then use the hospital that they use (Alta Bates for ABMG, Summitt for Hill). Kaiser you use their doctors, at their facility, although now you deliver at AB. A lot of people like Kaiser because they have extended drop in clinic hours, so you don't have to get to sick kid appointments at the time. My best advice in terms of insurance is to figure out where you want to deliver your baby and work from there.

An additional note: AB and Summitt are trying to merge, so things may change and your choice for delivering your baby may end up being Alta Bates, no matter what you choose. There is an anti-trust trial in process which will decide this.