Cost of Maternity Care

I read an article yesterday that I found both interesting and disturbing.  It covered the grounds of the cost of maternity care in the United States.  It seems that compared to almost every other developed country, most comparable to Europe, it costs at least twice as much to have a child in the United States as it does anywhere else.  Just to give birth to a child in the United States and not including any of the pregnancy care, it costs on average about $9,775 dollars compared to Switzerland, the next highest, at $4,039.  And the price goes up if you have a Cesarean.   This number is fine if your health insurance covers all costs, but very few insurance companies do that these days.  My wife and I are lucky in the fact that our insurance covers everything because I don't think we would have been able to afford having a child at all.  We obviously would have made it work somehow, but our options would have been limited and the stress of the situation could have brought about potential complications.  Just looking at what our insurance was billed from the hospital, it was over $20,000.  In my mind, that is utterly ridiculous, especially considering the fact that they didn't really do anything besides assist in the delivery.  There was an ob-gyn on hand in case we needed her during our son's birth, but generally speaking, all we had in the hospital was a nurse and midwife.   Even then, I had to keep the midwife at bay to ensure that she didn't go overboard with her intrusive nature.  When it came down to it, I handled most of the delivery myself with just a little bit of assistance from her.  There were no drugs, no anaesthesia, no shots, no vaccines, nothing.  The only thing that they really did was take a little bit of blood from our son's foot to test for major problems, that was it.  And it still cost upwards of $20,000.  I'm pretty sure it was a lot more than that, but I am being conservative here.  According to the article, the biggest problem these days is that everything is a line item now with a separate price attached to it that when added up, exceeds what is necessary to deliver a child.  The worst part about this all is that we in the United States have one of the highest mortality rates for both mother and child out of all developed nations, yet it also costs the most to have a child.  Something doesn't make sense. 

 

I am all for the least intrusion possible when it comes to having a baby.  The more poking and prodding that is done both during the pregnancy and delivery increases the risk of something going wrong.  Yet, there is fear in the United States that if we don't poke and prod, something really will go wrong.  Its the fear that causes things to go wrong and if we maintain that mentality, the cost of delivering a baby will only increase as more and more people will have issues.  I would much prefer a home birth, yet my wife doesn't quite agree with me, so its the hospital for us.  Luckily, she does agree that the less intrusions the better and on that note, we are solid.  I remember when we got to the hospital for our son and I handed them our birth plan.  There was a combined look of shock and admiration at what we were doing.  It seems that very few people actually write up a birth plan these days that details exactly what they want done and exactly what they don't want to happen.  Our birth plan essentially said, "Don't ask us if we want drugs, leave us alone, and don't intervene".  It was a lot longer than that obviously, but that was the essential message.  When it came time for delivery, the midwife and ob-gyn actually got excited because we were having a completely natural birth, something that obviously doesn't happen very often these days.  Even in my wife's records, the midwife wrote, "had an amazing natural birth".  Yet even with all of that, the hospital, Yale New Haven, still charged a ridiculous sum of money essentially just to give us a room in which to have a baby.  I am pretty sure that if you added up all our mortgage payments for a whole year, it still would cost more to have a baby in a hospital.  Something is screwy and out of whack here and nothing is being done to stop the rampage that doctor's and hospitals are on in terms of charging people excessive amounts of money.  Even now, with our second child being a couple of months old in my wife's womb, they are starting to poke and prod a little too much for my liking.  We had one ultrasound already at what turned out to be 7 weeks.  When we met with the midwife afterwards, she wanted to do another ultrasound at 12 weeks just to see how the baby was growing.  I didn't say anything at the time, but talked to my wife later about it.  Why do they need another ultrasound to see if the baby is growing?  I'm pretty sure that if it stays in there, it will grow, period.  There is a standard one that is done at 20 weeks and my wife and I agreed that we would wait till then to get another ultrasound, screw the midwife and her recommendations.  Oh well, its time for me to put on my boxing gloves and get ready for action, just in case they push a little too hard.  I find that as long as you stand your ground, they back down easily.  Yet, for now, I must carry on and get our current family up and ready for the day.  You can rest assured that I will have plenty more to say on all of this in the coming months.