Baby Delivery Costs 2012

With Daughter #2 arriving in September, the medical bills have been trickling in from our prenatal care & delivery. I thought it might be beneficial to post the medical costs & fees that we were billed for in relation to having our baby via a regular birth in a local hospital. I suspect these costs vary widely and and could be exponentially higher or lower. Luckily for us our health insurance covers the vast majority of these expenses. However these pregnancy/birth costs can be staggering and are only a small part of the larger expenses of having and raising a child.

Description

Cost

OBGYN DR (Prenatal, Delivery, Postpartum)

$ 4,624.00

Labor Room/Delivery

$ 3,362.00

Self Admin Drugs

$ 147.70

Anesthesia

$ 2,154.00

Lab/Hematolory

$ 147.00

Lab/Immunology

$ 27.00

Laboratory

$ 237.00

Sterile Supply

$ 200.00

Pharmacy

$ 383.00

OB/PVT

$ 1,330.00

Accommodations (baby)

$ 1,216.00

Hospital Services (baby)

$ 139.00

Hospital Services (baby)

$ 122.00

Hospital Services (baby)

$ 111.00

Lab Tests (baby)

$ 18.00

Lab Tests (baby)

$ 14.00

Total

$ 14,231.70

After Insurance (Out of Pocket):

$ 626.98

In addition to the expenses above we had some additional medical costs due to small complications during the pregnancy and delivery that I didn't include here so that this summary should provide a good general baseline, but isn't necessarily comprehensive.

Does anyone actually pay these retail medical costs? I can't imagine anyone who does not have health insurance actually paying these prices. I've heard that discounts and payments plans are typically offered to customers without insurance, but my guess would be that these medical costs are staggering to anyone who doesn't have insurance. Even a 50% discount (~$7,115) still leaves a huge sum for a young family.

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Comments (12)


Dont know what the big deal is. It is half the price of a new car. Is it more important to buy a new car or have a baby? Which is worth paying for? I would gladly pay 5x this for my kids to be born in a safe medical environment instead of at home in a cave.

Uhhh, people have been having babies for a long time without these exorbitant costs. There's no way these arbitrary numbers can be justified. You must be a top dog in the medical field or work for big pharma.

Was this a Cesarian?

No regular birth.

you have really good insurance.

Looking at our insurance deductable, from pregnancy to birth (not counting post delivery care), we expected to pay out of pocket expense of $1,750

Out of curiosity, how much do you pay in Health, Dental and Optometry insurance per month for your family 2million?

Coming from someone who paid $0, I would have to agree the bill seems exorbitant! If you were paying out-of-pocket, you may have been able to reduce costs in a few areas... Anesthesia, Accommodations (baby)? Even then it would still run nearly 10 grand!

We did a midwife delivery at a birth center and Kaiser picked up the entire tab, but even out of pocket it would only cost about $3,000 or so. Most of that was the 4 or 5 in-home midwife visits to get to know each other. I would definitely chose that route again. I think your first poster is jumping to conclusions; home births for low risk deliveries are extremely safe.

It's a very personal decision and if you feel most comfortable in a hospital then that is probably the right place. I think it's important for mothers to know that a hospital is not the only option.

This movie helps to explain the motives hospitals and doctors weigh during a birth. How that aligns to the parents vision is yours to conclude:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0995061/

You get what you pay for... there are those who advocate Midwifery/Delivery at home/Birthing centers - which is great for the 95% of deliveries that go easily/smoothly, but what happens if there is an issue w/ the mother or baby?

The high costs are charges that are based on 1) people who don't pay their bills despite being insured 2) the uninsured - so that the hospital can capture some of the income lost with those 2 categories (since they hope that some insurers will pay % of charges - which used to be the case, but 99% of insurers no longer pay % of charges and instead pay a contracted rate or a % of usual and customary fee schedule).

Wrapped in those charges are the astronomical litigation costs associated with labor/delivery...

Solution?
1) tort reform and liability limits
2) state sponsored catastrophic insurance programs for the poor/disabled
3) insurance companies that can compete across state lines...

I'm late to this post, but thought I'd chime in. We had group health with our first, and would never not use a hospital after complications during delivery caused a team of neonatal / pulmonary docs to be required.

We had no maternity coverage for the next. We paid out of pocket (out of our HSA) 6-7k for everything. That was after discounted prices and bringing our own aspirin and other supplies. Worked out better for us than the $1300/mo plus deductibles we were paying for group health.

Medical expenses are ridiculous,you kind of being held hostage because at the time of the birth you just sign papers most times just to get the procedure started. My wife had an emergency ceserian luckily we were covered for most costs but we still had to pay in. Our medical cover is also quite comprehensive,so I also feel sorry for young families having to raise the funds. Either pay a fortune each month or pay a fortune when you need it for decent care, suppose its one of lifes choices.

Well what can I say- you have great insurance. We have to pay 10% out of pocket for all in or out patient treatment till we reach $10 K per family, then it is free.

You would be surprise but some people do pay them.
- Immigrants who came into the country for a hope to give kids the U citizenship later.
- Friend of mine 10 years happen not to have an insurance, so she paid $5 k for delivery. She did not take any anesthesia and was out of the hospital next day.

Not all the families do have cover in nowadays, I am afraid...I was led to believe that home delivery is getting increasingly popular...

I live in Canada and therefore have free healthcare. But my taxes are higher because of it. So it's almost like they previously deducted my costs to birth our three kids.

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