General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe High Cost of Childbirth…Only in America
In most developed countries, having a baby costs a parent(s) nothing, or is relatively cheap. That is not the case in the United States.
Americans are confronted with hospital costs for delivering a child that can range from $30,000 to $50,000, according to a new report commissioned by three health care groups.
In European countries, like France, the Netherlands and Switzerland, the cost tops out at $4,000 (assuming the mother does not require a Cesarean section). In others, like Ireland, there is no cost at public hospitals.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., the annual cumulative cost of about four million births is a whopping $50 billion.
No other country comes close to spending so much on its next generation of citizens. And those in other nations are not getting shortchanged in terms of maternity services.
http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/the-high-cost-of-childbirthonly-in-america-130706?news=850490
Skidmore
(37,364 posts)40 years ago, the entire hospital bill was $1200 and I stayed in the hospital a full six days recuperating from a difficult birth. When she gave birth to her kids the maximum stay was a couple of nights they spent several years paying of their co pay.
HockeyMom
(14,337 posts)was $200. My daughter was breech but delivered vaginally. I had the entire Queens, NYC,Hospital OB staff there for her delivery, not to mention all kinds of sonograms, x-rays, etc.
5 days? All I kept saying was can I please go home now?
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)Oh, wait, yeah, we don't actually need hospitals or doctors to have babies, though sometimes they are critically useful.
rgbecker
(4,834 posts)Boy: 1982 6 weeks early, $15000. College: $120,000
Girl: 1986 Cesarean, $6000. College; $160,000.
Love 'em both.