Cost of birth in the US

[mayerling]

Does anybody know WHY it costs so much? I mean, is $5000-$10,000 the actual cost of the L&D for each birth (e.g for use of equipment, medical team etc), or is it inflated for some other reason? Or is this how much it actually costs in other countries too, the ones that subsidize health care?

In the UK, it's free for everyone and, as far as I know based on some numbers published in November, it costs the state just over £1000 for a vaginal birth and less than £3000 for a c-section. Back home, where healthcare is not free for everyone, those that have to pay when going to a state hospital are charged less than 1000 euro for a vaginal birth and around 2000 for a c-section.

 

[KimberlyH]

My pregnancy from start to finish (all OB visits, delivery, perinatologist, twice weekly ultrasounds from 32 weeks on) cost us $14,000 out of pocket. Insurance covered the rest.

 

[ponder]

I am currently 35 weeks pregnant and we do not have maternity coverage with our insurance. Our cost for an uncomplicated vaginal birth has been/ will be: Routine Penantal lab tests $1500
Physician prenatal and delivery fees $3000
Prepaid hospital delivery fee $3600
Epidural $1000
misc hospital expenses (estimated) $3000
Total: $12,100

Huge difference in what you actually pay and what the hospital would charge an insurance company, although once the hospital accepts the negotiated insurance fee its about the same. If we did not pay our hospital delivery fee in advance of the delivery, the cost would skyrocket to $17,000.

We chose to not have maternity coverage with our third and final baby as maternity coverage with independant insurance is just too expensive. My husband is self employed and I work for a small business that does not offer health insurance. Our middle child cost $23, 000 with monthly premium $1450 (per month), deductible $3000, and out of pocket noncovered expenses. The monthly premiun was going to go up to $1800 a month to continue with maternity coverage, so we dropped it and the monthly premium went down to $450 (per month). We will probably save about $10,000 this pregnancy.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

My VB was $26,000. That included an induction, 5 days at the hospital (complications from a kidney infection so extra meds, bladder scans, IVs, etc), peds team at my birth (meconium in my water). My co-pay was $2,200. The problem with predicting costs related to pregnancy/child birth is LOTS of unpredictable things can happen.

 

[DivaDiamond007]

if you are under the poverty line there is insurance that will cover it. If you are not, then you make arrangements to make payments and hope that you make a dent. We did end up losing our house because of medical bills years ago. And we did have insurance. They just wouldn't pay for the treatments my daughter needed. It's a reality that far too many people have to deal with.[/quote]

I'm so sorry, I hope she's better now.

Much as lower taxes here would be nice, I think I sleep easier knowing that whatever happens to any of my family healthwise, it's all free.

I'm so sorry mrs. taylor. We had to fight with the insurance company to cover some of our daughter's medical treatments as well.

Pandora: We are STILL paying our hospital bills from when our daughter was born and she's now a year old. What sucks though is I lost my (good paying) job when she was 9 months old and the hospital sent one of the bills to a collection agency AFTER I called them and asked to lower the payment, which they refused to do. We're not about to lose our house just yet, but I'm worried about being sued so I hired an attorney (my former boss, actually) to handle the matter. Infuriates me to no end.

 

[Pandora II]

I am currently 35 weeks pregnant and we do not have maternity coverage with our insurance. Our cost for an uncomplicated vaginal birth has been/ will be: Routine Penantal lab tests $1500
Physician prenatal and delivery fees $3000
Prepaid hospital delivery fee $3600
Epidural $1000
misc hospital expenses (estimated) $3000
Total: $12,100

Huge difference in what you actually pay and what the hospital would charge an insurance company, although once the hospital accepts the negotiated insurance fee its about the same. If we did not pay our hospital delivery fee in advance of the delivery, the cost would skyrocket to $17,000.

We chose to not have maternity coverage with our third and final baby as maternity coverage with independant insurance is just too expensive. My husband is self employed and I work for a small business that does not offer health insurance. Our middle child cost $23, 000 with monthly premium $1450 (per month), deductible $3000, and out of pocket noncovered expenses. The monthly premiun was going to go up to $1800 a month to continue with maternity coverage, so we dropped it and the monthly premium went down to $450 (per month). We will probably save about $10,000 this pregnancy.

What happens if it turns out to be a complicated birth? Do you have some kind of protection in built in the hospital fees or is it a case of being hit with a mega-bill?

 

[Pandora II]

if you are under the poverty line there is insurance that will cover it. If you are not, then you make arrangements to make payments and hope that you make a dent. We did end up losing our house because of medical bills years ago. And we did have insurance. They just wouldn't pay for the treatments my daughter needed. It's a reality that far too many people have to deal with.[/quote]

I'm so sorry, I hope she's better now.

Much as lower taxes here would be nice, I think I sleep easier knowing that whatever happens to any of my family healthwise, it's all free.

I'm so sorry mrs. taylor. We had to fight with the insurance company to cover some of our daughter's medical treatments as well.

Pandora: We are STILL paying our hospital bills from when our daughter was born and she's now a year old. What sucks though is I lost my (good paying) job when she was 9 months old and the hospital sent one of the bills to a collection agency AFTER I called them and asked to lower the payment, which they refused to do. We're not about to lose our house just yet, but I'm worried about being sued so I hired an attorney (my former boss, actually) to handle the matter. Infuriates me to no end.

Ouch!

I guess I now understand why you get free onesies and diapers in the hospital and we dont!

 

[Miss Sparkly]

What happens if you are someone who has no insurance and things all go wrong? Do people end up in debt for the rest of their lives and losing their houses over it? Is there free care available if you don't have insurance?

It scares me to think about this. My coworkers niece ended up in the ER two years ago with what she thought was a heart attack (she was 20 years old). Her boss screwed up, never filed her insurance paperwork, and so she did not have insurance. The hospital did the least amount of work necessary to keep her stable for nearly a week (which was blood transfusions for her severe anemia) until a charitable organization stepped in to pay all past and future medical bills for her. Within 24 hours she was moved to a wing with a specialist (they stated that a bed just happened to open up), they performed full bone marrow testing and quickly learned that she had contracted Parvo. Even with aggressive treatment she was in the hospital for a month and a half.

What happens? I'm guessing that patients do not receive treatment that they need and that they are in debt for the rest of their lives.

 

[ponder]

Our insurance would cover any complications of the pregnancy or delivery. Once a complication occurs they consider that I am now "sick" and not just pregnant anymore. We would have to pay a $7000 deductible, but would then be covered at 100%. Also the baby would be covered in the same manner.

 

[ponder]

FYI- since we have strayed slightly from the original topic to catastrophic illness, I just learned that babies born prematurely, weighing less than 1200 grams, or weighing less than 2000 grams and being small for their gestational age are medically covered by social security regardless of your insurance coverage or ability to pay. A co worker of mine gave birth at 23.5 weeks and all medical treatment of her son from the moment of birth has been covered by social security.

 

[Sha]

Does anybody know WHY it costs so much? I mean, is $5000-$10,000 the actual cost of the L&D for each birth (e.g for use of equipment, medical team etc), or is it inflated for some other reason? Or is this how much it actually costs in other countries too, the ones that subsidize health care?

In the UK, it's free for everyone and, as far as I know based on some numbers published in November, it costs the state just over £1000 for a vaginal birth and less than £3000 for a c-section. Back home, where healthcare is not free for everyone, those that have to pay when going to a state hospital are charged less than 1000 euro for a vaginal birth and around 2000 for a c-section.

Thanks mayerling. Not to start another debate, but I'm really shocked at the US birth costs, and I'm curious why it might vary so much by country. (I paid US $250 for my birth - vaginal - no complications. Our healthcare isn't' state of the art', by any means though - definitely not as modern as in the US and other places, but I guess it's decent enough ) But still..I can't imagine what it must be like not to have insurance in the U.S, or even with insurance, to be set back by thousands of dollars just to give birth.

 

[Kunzite]

FYI- since we have strayed slightly from the original topic to catastrophic illness, I just learned that babies born prematurely, weighing less than 1200 grams, or weighing less than 2000 grams and being small for their gestational age are medically covered by social security regardless of your insurance coverage or ability to pay. A co worker of mine gave birth at 23.5 weeks and all medical treatment of her son from the moment of birth has been covered by social security.

Do you think this could have been Medicaid and not SS? The coverage is different in every state (since Medicaid is state), but some states do help with medical expenses related to premature babies. We're in Washington state and because our son was in the hospital for over 30 days Medicaid paid all of his deductibles, copays, prescriptions etc (basically anything out of pocket) as secondary insurance for an entire year. We were so lucky, it saved us thousands of dollars. It also made it easier for us to take him into the doctor anytime we wanted without having to worry about paying each time, which I'm sure was the spirit of the law to make sure preemies are getting into the doctor as often as they need.

 

[ponder]

Nope, its social security. We were worried about them financially as they would have been responsible for about 20% of a million dollars a month or roughly $200,000 a month based on their insurance alone. But apparently as soon as their son was transferred to Texas Children's Hospital the social worker informed them that everything would be covered as to not influence any decisions they made due to monetary concerns. Their son is considered disabled due to his low birth weight an therefore covered by social security. It didn't really make sense to me at first either, but you can get more info just by googleing social security and premature birth.

 

[rubybeth]

Does anybody know WHY it costs so much? I mean, is $5000-$10,000 the actual cost of the L&D for each birth (e.g for use of equipment, medical team etc), or is it inflated for some other reason? Or is this how much it actually costs in other countries too, the ones that subsidize health care?

In the UK, it's free for everyone and, as far as I know based on some numbers published in November, it costs the state just over £1000 for a vaginal birth and less than £3000 for a c-section. Back home, where healthcare is not free for everyone, those that have to pay when going to a state hospital are charged less than 1000 euro for a vaginal birth and around 2000 for a c-section.

Thanks mayerling. Not to start another debate, but I'm really shocked at the US birth costs, and I'm curious why it might vary so much by country. (I paid US $250 for my birth - vaginal - no complications. Our healthcare isn't' state of the art', by any means though - definitely not as modern as in the US and other places, but I guess it's decent enough ) But still..I can't imagine what it must be like not to have insurance in the U.S, or even with insurance, to be set back by thousands of dollars just to give birth.

The number one cause for bankruptcy filings in the U.S. is medical bills. And I wouldn't be surprised if many of those people have insurance, but high deductibles (like $10k or more) that they cannot afford.

 

[Sha]

Does anybody know WHY it costs so much? I mean, is $5000-$10,000 the actual cost of the L&D for each birth (e.g for use of equipment, medical team etc), or is it inflated for some other reason? Or is this how much it actually costs in other countries too, the ones that subsidize health care?

In the UK, it's free for everyone and, as far as I know based on some numbers published in November, it costs the state just over £1000 for a vaginal birth and less than £3000 for a c-section. Back home, where healthcare is not free for everyone, those that have to pay when going to a state hospital are charged less than 1000 euro for a vaginal birth and around 2000 for a c-section.

Thanks mayerling. Not to start another debate, but I'm really shocked at the US birth costs, and I'm curious why it might vary so much by country. (I paid US $250 for my birth - vaginal - no complications. Our healthcare isn't' state of the art', by any means though - definitely not as modern as in the US and other places, but I guess it's decent enough ) But still..I can't imagine what it must be like not to have insurance in the U.S, or even with insurance, to be set back by thousands of dollars just to give birth.

The number one cause for bankruptcy filings in the U.S. is medical bills. And I wouldn't be surprised if many of those people have insurance, but high deductibles (like $10k or more) that they cannot afford.

Hmmm..interesting! .....And sad, too.