Baby Delivery Cost - Buyer Experiences and Price Information

My wife has the BEST insurance from being a school teacher. We didn't pay a cent to have our first child. I'm scared about the next one though since she will be off her plan and on mine which is worse. I am trying to decide whether to stay in my HDHP HSA plan or go back to an HMO.

Total bill for my delivery and prenatal appointments and ultrasounds was $16,762.70. Highmark paid $14,700 and Gateway picked up $1800. I had to pay $270 out of my pocket at the beginning of my pregnancy (before I picked up Gateway Insurance).

If you're not making enough, consider applying for Moms & Babies with the Illinois Dept of Human Services. I never received a bill at home, never had to pay any copays, did not pay for any Dr's office visits, hospital stay, or baby's visits/immunizations. Awesome! I'm appalled at how much hospitals are charging!!!

The epidural cost me an extra $200 out of pocket. Insurance covered $1,792.00 of that bill. The total charges for the hospital stay were $16,500.00 and I didn't stay as long as my first pregnancy which was way cheaper (about $5k)! The view wasn't nearly as good either and the hospital was under construction. I can't believe how much more expensive this was! CRAZY! I had a C-Section at Hoag Memorial Presbyterian Hospital and the total charges were $12,500.00. That was only 2 years ago and we had to pay $250 out of pocket. My husband had a different job with better insurance at the time. It was Cigna.

My baby came unexpectantly at home. We went to the hospital afterwards (by ambulance-$1200 for me + $1400 baby). The MW literally just looked at me and said everything is ok down there then I was transferred to postpartum. I was there for 1 day. I have a $250 deductible and 10% thereafter. I had my first baby in Atl (piedmont hospital) with epidural, induction w/ pitocin, 3 day stay for me, 5 day stay for daughter with jaundice receiving phototherapy. The total cost under same insurance plan out of pocket was only $500 and then $67 for epidural. Baylor All Saints was SO MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE. I was appalled at the price difference and wonder if this is all of DFW or just Baylor All Saints.

I had an emergency c/s and we only paid a $20 copay for my very first OB visit.
All u/s and tests were covered 100%.
Our deductible was $500.00 for the c/s and we never received a NICU bill.
All of our babies well child exams are included in this until she is 2 years old, including vaccinations.

The cost of delivery was more expensive than usual due to the fact that it was done in the university hospital. Our baby had a cleft lip and normal OBGYN's in our small town wouldn't deliver. Most deliveries here are performed in private OBG clinics above the doctor's office. Hospitals only take referred troubled cases. The average cost for delivery is about $1200 and the normal out of pocket is $300. The total cost for delivery in the countries premiere hospital (ranked 80th in the world) was $2,500 and an out of pocket of $1,300. This included induction, delivery, some Xrays and lab tests, EKG, epesiotomy, room and board, and medication.
The child had a separate bill of $500. This included an echocardiogram and a special needs feeder, plus hearing and health tests. No circumcision though.
On another note, the child requires plastic surgery for cleft lip and an indentation on the gum line. This surgery is covered by Korean National Health insurance and the total cost is unknown to me, but I called the Korean Ministry of Health and they told me my out of pocket would be about $1,100. They told me my wife's delivery would only cost $800 and the final cost was $1,300, so I will plan on at least $2000 to be safe as they won't discharge a patient here unless the bill is paid in full!!! That's kind of crazy, since if you couldn't afford the bill at the moment of delivery, how are you going to afford it 2 days later after additional charges. It's just Korean logic. Doesn't always work well. But, the total cost was actually quite good and the level of care was modern and high tech in quality. While I still had complaints, I shouldn't complain too much looking at the other bills here.

Uncovered epidural charges: 95
Uncovered midwives: 326.09
Room/board/everything else: $780
Total costs: 18,347.92
I'm looking at the detailed medical bill and trying to figure out what the additional items are. Vaginal Birthing RO: 2484. Non-Stress Test ADD: 220. Non-Stress Test: 466. Level 2 W/Proc: 122 (two times). It would be helpful to know what these really were

Delivery - (my cost $1565.56)
Hospital stay: 22,557.75
Doctor fee: 2,612.00
Epidural: 1,562.42
Pregnancy -
All dr visits and ultrasounds: 13,603.55
I have not received the bill for my baby's in hospital care yet, but she does not have insurance through the same provider (my fault, I missed the 30 day enrollment deadline) and so $0 of it will be covered. I'll have to pay for it all.
My plan has a $250 deductible, a hospital stay deductible of $200, 80/20 after the deductibles are met, and an out-of-pocket maximum of $1,600, all annually. Nothing I was billed for was not allowable through my insurance company so after I reached the max everything was covered.

The hospital billed my insurance $16,000+ for a totally normal vaginal delivery. My deductible was 2,000. The dr's bill was $2000 and it cost me $50 more for a private room. My son also had a deductible of $2000. He was charged $156 to be discharged. These costs seem pretty outrageous for a vaginal delivery!

Still trying to get them to cover to cover it but may have to declare bankruptcy. they covered the NICU stay of $60,000

I was induced and had a vaginal delivery with an epidural. I ended up having to stay in the hospital 5 days because of breastfeeding issues, so my hospital bill is a little more than should normally be expected. I also had a $5000 deductible which meant more out of my pocket. The epidural ended up being $675 insruance allowable. My OB/GYN prenatal care and delivery was about $2100 insurance allowable. The hospital stay was $2600 insurance allowable for me and then an extra $750 for my daughter. That all had to come out of my pocket since I had a high deductible, but if your deductible is smaller then you would just owe whatever percentage your co-ins is. It is well worth it though!!

Was initially told by my insurance that I would only pay $3000 max. Then I got a bill for me and then one for my baby - together totalling over $42000! (24k for me, 18k for baby), with insurance insisting that we each need to pay $3000. Still trying to resolve costs with the hospital, but nobody ever told us to expect this and is a serious financial drain for us.

i had 2 home births in nyc, both were $6000 from soup to nuts - all prenatal care and post-partum visits

it took some doing but it was 100% covered by my insurer

We have a deductible/then 80/20 plan. We had a normal vaginal delivery with epidural and stadol - no other special aspects of the delivery. The hospital charges were $36,000 and the epidural charges were $1900. After insurance we paid $3300 for the Hospital and $1200 for the epidural. We were in the hospital Sun-Tuesday. I personally think that the total cost charged by the hospital is rediculous, it's no wonder we have such problems with healthcare in this country. I know that medically trained staff deserve good salaries and that a lot of people were involved with our stay, but that's a shocking price tag for a normal delivery. Think about plastic surgeries - they cost 6 times less...why? Because the consumer is paying for it because it is an elective surgery - as opposed to the insurer paying for it? This system is broken.

Your article neglects to mention independent midwives who do deliveries at a client's home. This can be a very economical option. Costs vary on geography for sure. Some insurance plans do cover ...Tricare did, and Blue Cross Anthem does too.
Midwives can also do VBACs in california by the way...for those who are being discouraged from trying by current hospital policies.

I delivered my baby at milford hospital in Connecticut.The care was amazing and the staff was so friendly and caring.I spent around 3500$ and paid in monthly instalments.We have provision to recover part of this delivery expences in india aswell so,totally my delivery expences would be around 2000$.

I had a good experience at the hospital. My son was admitted into NICU for a while, and I had to stay for a little while longer.

I managed to negotiate a staggered payment plan of $200 a month.

I'm on a Business trip visit to the US, I'm in my 33rd week of pregnancy, I have to go for a C-section as my early 2 childs came as such, I cannot afford the high and expensive delivery fees WHAT CAN I DO??

I'm looking at 3000 $ for hospital, and the obgyn charges of about 2000 $. These are my portions of the bill.
Actual Charges:
Bills from hospital.
38000 $ for delivery. (For mother)
14000 $ for nursery. (For baby)

Doctors' medical group:
8000 $ for all visits up to delivery..

I can't believe these numbers...

All the joy of parenthood is killed by these. This money is coming out of my baby's future... :(

Paid 250.00 for vagnal delivery induced 1 week early. It was wonderful. Now delivering twins with a PPO and really worried.

We don't have insurance coverage and so are self-pay. At 34 weeks pregnant, so far costs have included: $3159.00 pre-pay to the OB/Gyn, $2000.00 to a specialty ultrasound for the fetal diagnostic and fetal echocardiogram studies, $2000.00 hospital pre-pay, and about $800.00 in lab bills. I don't know how much hospital bills for labor and delivery will be, but it is very worrisome. It is absolutely horrible that maternity and delivery are so expensive and are not well covered by most insurance plans

I had cigna and I only pay 75 a month for insurance. They covered 100% of my doctor visits with no copay needed. also I only had to pay 500 co pay at the hospital I had a normal vaginal delevery

Told covered at 100% reasonable and customary. Turns out 100% of what the insurance felt like paying. Insurance isn't what it used to be.

25,000 plus or minus a grand was billed to my insurer. For my child, in the NICU-10days, it was an additional 48,000. Insurance covered most of it (all but 4500-United Health Plan.)Would have been significantly cheaper for vaginal delivery.
[Note, Three years ago Blue Cross HMO blue covered entire emergency csection with a 25.00 copayment.]

I had a PPO plan through my job that was hundreds of dollars per month deducted from my paycheck. I had a $1000 deductible and then it covered about 80%. The epidural costed me $1700 after insurance. My OB/GYN bill was $400 after insurance. The hospital charged me $700 and my daughter $600 after insurance.

All we had to POP was $200 to the doctor. Until my son was actually born. I had an emergency C-section and then the bills came pouring in! After it was all said and done we had over $30,000.00 in medical bills pertaining to the birth of our son. We had to file bankruptcy.

the statistics in the article is no where realstic. i paid more than 7000 to 8000 for maternity and i may have paid 1000 for baby care

The error I see in this information is that no premium costs are included with insured delivery. With my company, depending on deductible, we pay between $7700 to $3600 on premiums per year whether insurance benefit is received or not. To be more relevant, these costs need to be included.......the way the article is written makes it appear otherwise.