This Is How Much It Costs To Give Birth In The United States

Out Of Network Costs

Most health insurance plans come with not so fine print that dictates what they will and won’t pay for. When one mom chose to use a birth center that wasn’t in her network, her out-of-pocket costs were $6200.00.

This wasn’t even counting her post-partum costs, medication bills, and labwork charges. Another prime example of just how costly any decision can be when it comes to childbirth.

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Being Sure

Our next story is actually a pretty heart-wrenching one. One mom explains that cost was one of the main reasons why she wasn’t sure she even wanted to go ahead with her birth. In the end, she did and as it was all off-plan, she got stuck with a massive $120 000.00 bill.

While she asserts that she’s now a happy mother and glad that she went ahead with the birth, the debt will always remain over her head and is nowhere close to being paid off.

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An Unwell Child

Tragically, not all babies are born perfectly healthy. Some may be born with congenital birth defects or hereditary conditions. Unfortunately, treating these issues can be extremely costly and it’s not like any parent is ever going to opt-out of it.

When one mom went through this, her child’s condition required a long stay in the NICU.  Her child was born with a condition that required many weeks in NICU. Her bill came in at close to a million dollars. Fortunately, she worked for the hospital and her insurance covered it all. Now just imagine being a mom whose insurance doesn’t cover a bill like that.

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Not Covered

Again, knowing the exact exclusions on your insurance plan can make a huge difference to the bill. When one mom had pre-eclampsia giving birth to twins, an emergency C-section at 36 weeks was required. A five-day stay in hospital followed for the mom even though the kids were okay.

She was still stuck with a $130 000.00 bill despite the added stay being for herself and not her kids. While the situation was truly sad, knowing the fine print of her policy beforehand may have saved her a ton.

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To Insure Or Not To Insure

Despite the added costs that medical insurance can come with, one mom highlights how sorely it is still needed. When comparing her two births, the first without insurance and the second with, this is what she discovered.

Without insurance, pre-natal checks, birth, and post-partum costs were $65 000.00 whereas with insurance, this only cost her roughly $2000.00 out of pocket. With such a massive difference, as much as some people may deeply resent the system and its major players, it’s difficult to imagine managing without it.

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Leaving Early

It cost me $15,000 for induction with no complications. We even left earlier than we should have to avoid the extra charge from the hospital.

We knew it would cost us much more if we stayed there. This is the reality of the American medical system. It’s so expensive you can go bankrupt from one visit to the hospital.

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Unbelievable

I was induced at 37 weeks due to pre-eclampsia. I had to take medicine, then Pitocin, and three epidurals because the first two didn’t work. Had a natural birth, and the baby went to the special care nursery for a few hours and no NICU.

My total stay was five days. The bill was $42K, and I paid around $4K out of pocket with all the appointments. I couldn’t believe that’s how much it was!!

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Only Two Days

It cost me about $7K after insurance in 2019 for an emergency C-section birth plus a NICU stay. We were only in for two days. I have pretty great insurance for my area.

I barely managed to save the money over the years and just recently paid the birth bills off. I can’t believe it cost me that much to give birth.

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No More Children

My husband was on active military duty when our son was born. I used the military hospital, but it cost us $0. He left the Army when our son was 3.

Knowing what it would cost to have another child with our new insurance plan ($9K deductible plus 20% of surgery costs), we decided not to have additional biological children.

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Bad Insurance

I had a C-section with terrible insurance. It cost $28,000. I also had to pay my doctor $3,000 before the baby was born.

The hospital made me pay before the baby was born and took $8,000. They are still waiting for that other $20,000, and I don’t know when I will be able to pay it.

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