hoppykit
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Monthly visits to the doctor, then biweekly visits, then weekly visits. On top of that there are the ultrasounds, then the delivery room. Try to fit all that into $1000.
Edit-- So your friend had NO medical care up til she walked into the hospital and said she was having a baby? Even if that were true the her room, the delivery room, medical staff, supplies and doctor cost WAY more than $1000. Did she not go to the local public aid office and inquire into gettting some kind of help? |
mbrcatz
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You don't. Until about 60 years ago, most people in the USA gave birth at home, for free. You only need to pay for giving birth, if you insist on doing it in a hospital. Just the ROOM rental, for YOU, is the $1,000. An epidural runs around $700.
The average CASH price, for a "normal" birth, without anesthetic, is about $6,000 for a hospital. Of course, if you go to a hospital, you have about a 50/50 chance for getting a c section, which will cost about $18,000. And, of course, about 60% of women who have C sections, have complications - even if it's just that nasty spinal headache, which of course, costs MORE money to fix.
Obstetricians have the highest medical malpractice rates of any medical profession. That's because juries, when they see a dead or injured infant, they don't CARE if the doctor was at fault, the sympathy bit, they're going to go award whatever the parents are asking for. We call it, a dead baby claim, and frankly, it's not worth fighting, because even if the doctor did nothing wrong, the jury is going to side with the parents out of sympathy.
So. If you don't want medical bills out the whazoo, don't give birth in a hospital. Birth is NOT an illness, and does NOT need extraordinary intervention, most of the time.
**The only way a birth takes one or two hours, is with a C section. Normally, first time labor averages 16 hours - which means, for every person like me, who had a 7 hour labor with a first child, there's someone who went 25 hours. That's one reason for the high C section rate, it's FASTER, and makes more money for both the doctor, AND the hospital, especially when you consider that you have to stay in the hospital longer after a C section, which means the BABY stays in longer after a C section - both of you get charged SEPERATELY for your rooms. You can birth in a birthing center, with full prenatal care and better outcome, for about $3500 here in Houston. Or a homebirth with a midwife, and full prenatal care, costs about $2000.** |
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