'We Got The Bill For Having A Baby- $37,000. Welcome To Life In America'
- We got the bill for having a baby $37,000. Welcome to life in America, the Guardian, July 17, 2021. - Excerpts, Ed.
Baby got bills. For the last couple of months my wife and I have been playing a quintessentially American game of Guess the Baby Bill. The rules are simple: try to guess exactly how much we would be charged for the birth of our daughter earlier this year. Last week the hospital bill finally came, putting an end to the guessing game. The cost of an uncomplicated vaginal birth? $37,617.69.
I wont repeat what I said when we got this bill, because it is unprintable. My language became particularly colourful when, scrutinizing the bill, I noticed that the bulk of the charge was for 3 nights room and board in a semi-private room (containing 2 beds separated by a curtain) which was $10,350 a night. Thats 5 times more expensive than a completely private suite at the Ritz-Carlton by Central Park. The post-delivery hospital room, by the way, was more budget motel than the Ritz..
The good news is that we dont have to pay the entire bill: our health insurance covers about $31,000 leaving us with a balance of around $6,000. That doesnt make the ridiculously high prices OK. Were still covering the costs indirectly via our enormous insurance premiums which are going to go up by 16% next year. They need that money to do the things health companies are supposed to do: maximise profits, boost the share price and pay their executives huge amounts of money. UnitedHealth Groups chief executive made over $50 Million in salary, bonus and stock option compensation in 2019.
Its not just the extortionate prices in Americas health system that are problematic. Its the lack of transparency. My partner called our insurance company multiple times before the birth to try to find out how much we would expect to pay. We were told on each occasion that we wouldnt have to pay anything.. Americas healthcare system isnt just a nightmare to navigate its inefficient and inequitable. The US may spend more on healthcare as a share of the economy than any other developed country, but it also has the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world and maternal deaths have been increasing since 2000...
Full Article,
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/17/baby-got-bills-week-in-patriarchy-arwa-mahdawi
Ritabert
(666 posts)....not to mention day care and lack of maternal leave.
rickyhall
(4,889 posts)My kid cost me $900 in 1979. Pampers were $2.17 a carton and on and on...
Just worrying about the cost is a Boner killer too.
Hugh_Lebowski
(33,643 posts)more at link
LakeArenal
(28,813 posts)Imagine charging so much to renew our most valuable resource.
Im hoping Costa Rica grants me residency. Maybe you have to wait for treatment (which I really havent heard any complaints) but I know Drs here actually care about people. You dont need prescriptions here on most medicine. So no one is beholden to pharmaceutical companies. Also no pharma ads on the
Tee Vee.
Snackshack
(2,541 posts)Is horrible.
& as you mentioned. That is the cost for a complication free child birth
imagine if something had become
complicated.
Butterflylady
(3,541 posts)The whole bill was $125.00. The hospital got 75 and the doctor 50.
Yes, things certainly changed.
Marthe48
(16,932 posts)I think we had to pay the dr. $150.00 for care during 1st pregnancy. We didn't have insurance at the time, so paid both bills off in a few months.
In 1973, we had insurance, and if we paid anything, it was a $5 copay for office visits.
Prenatal vitamins were inexpensive. The costs included at least 2 days in a hospital.
My daughter had her babies around 2010, and their bills were $10,000.00 + and home the next day. They had insurance, but the ins. co. didn't want to cover everything, even if they were supposed to.
I don't know how people can afford anything these days.
SergeStorms
(19,192 posts)sucks ass. It's unconscionable that this is allowed to happen.
Rhiannon12866
(205,128 posts)My Dad was always very diligent about keeping track of his expenses. I can remember him sitting down at his desk every week, going over what he spent, he had a whole drawer filled with journals chronicling the expenses for each week. And there is also one for the year I was born. I saw it once, there's a list of what was spent that week and a single entry with my name and what I cost. I don't remember what it was, but it lined up with normal expenses - and was nowhere near $37,000!
BobTheSubgenius
(11,562 posts)A fellow I know here in Victoria was sporting a walking cast one day. I inquired, and he told me how he had broken a bone in his foot, "But at least it's not as bad as my cousin's injury." So, I asked about that, and he said that, while the injuries were remarkably similar, his cousin's accident had happened while he was in NYC temporarily, and it was what happened after the injury that was the story.
X-ray, interpretation of same, and a walking cast in NYC? $15,000...which was exactly $15,000 more than it cost here.
renate
(13,776 posts)The truth in a nutshell.
BigmanPigman
(51,583 posts)How is this allowed to continue? Oh wait, the rich people are the ones making the rules, bribing judges, etc. This is a major problem that is strictly American. Are we really a great country when this is acceptable practice? Hell, NO!
renate
(13,776 posts)The care people get is exemplary, caring, and thorough.
For all the BS about how we have such a superior system of care in the US, it's like watching any other show about a hospital emergency room here. Older facilities, maybe, but same treatment, same expertise, same diagnostic capabilities. The only difference is that the people there couldn't begin to imagine what it'd be like to get some unpredictable, enormous bill at the end. Nobody leaves against medical advice because they can't afford an overnight stay.
With national health care, the only worry you have when your loved one is lying on a gurney is... about your loved one. Sounds pretty good to me.
Anybody who thinks that the American emergency medical system is better than the NHS should watch this show. It's super bingeable, plus it's illuminating about how the supposed disadvantages of national health care really don't exist. I'd gladly give up a private room to be able to leave the hospital without a financial care.
demigoddess
(6,640 posts)we used to buy our daughter's medicine (she has had to take it her whole life) we paid for it out of our pockets. It was about 20 dollars a month. As soon as it was covered by insurance,even though we didn't use the insurance, it went to 40 and then within a couple of months, it went to 60dollars a month. Within another couple of months it went to 160 dollars a month. Last time I got a price it was over 240 dollars a month. Now we use our insurance to pay for it. Would hate to ask what it would cost these days. This is a common medicine, been around for decades. No big deal no research needed. Plain old thyroid replacement.
appalachiablue
(41,118 posts)the major increase for your daughter and many others on regular, essential meds. What a dysfunctional and cruel system.
It's also being done with public education and more. The USPS has been in targeted for privatization for years.
Rebl2
(13,485 posts)me is they were told multiple times by the insurance company they would owe nothing. To bad they didnt get it in writing.
Uncle Joe
(58,342 posts)Thanks for the thread appalachiablue.
Archae
(46,314 posts)Last time my Dad was in the hospital, he was charged hundreds for a pregnancy test, (HUH??!!??) $55 for a Tylenol, and for a doctor who never even saw my Dad, or consulted about his condition.
CrispyQ
(36,446 posts)& their insurance changed & she had to start all over again with new doctors. It's fucking insane.
PatrickforB
(14,570 posts)It is time for Medicare for all Americans.
appalachiablue
(41,118 posts)of all developed, industrial nations.
dalton99a
(81,432 posts)appalachiablue
(41,118 posts)got involved. The US system is grotesque and has to change.
XanaDUer2
(10,638 posts)so-so insurance
ExTex
(2,138 posts)Of course the dirt floor was a bit of a negative.