Mamas from different countries and the cost of having babies

Dishylo

I just read an article (hopefully clicky below) which talks about some unexpected costs of pregnancy.  I soon realized the article was American and that not many of these (save for maternity clothes) would apply to me.

But it got me thinking, how can you American Mamas afford to have babies?  The cost for an uncomplicated vaginal birth is $9,600??  Seriously?!  How much do you think having your child will set you back (financially)?

And for Mamas in other countries, do you have health care like we do in Canada and the UK or do you have to pay to have kids?

https://www.everydayfamily.com/blog/the-hidden-costs-of-pregnancy/?slide=9&internallink=the-hidden-costs-of-pregnancy#post-45593

goldenB

As you know, I'm from Canada - so I am not too concerned with the cost of having a baby from the medical point. However, my head hurts just thinking about the different baby gear + nursery things that I will need to buy (granted, I know that even though with a baby shower it probably won't cover all the big purchases).
-Rock and Play, Pack and Play, exersaucer, bouncer, high chair, tub for baby, Car seat, car seat adapter for stroller, stroller, crib, organic mattress, bottles, pumps, nursery bedding, nursery decor, ottoman glider, etc etc etc. 

I am making a spreadsheet soon so that I can plan better.

8-}

umma4babes

I am in the US, and I have insurance through my employer. I paid total of around $300 for prenatal and vaginal delivery with my first. I have since switched to a different insurance plan so it will be a bit more this time, around $800 I believe. The only financial setback would be not being paid while on maternity leave.

silentsiren11

I have a $7,000 deductible, so it will cost me $7,000. I got a letter from my doctors' office at the last appointment that said because of this, I will need to pay them a "down payment" of sorts of 2,300 by Dec. 7, which will count toward the deductible in January, so $4,700 in other charges can be expected depending on who bills first. I will owe a total of $3,194 just to the doctor if they bill first, leaving $3,806 to the hospital and associated expenses.

hopeful808

I believe that money numbers are cost without insurance. Many people in the US like myself have health insurance which pays some or all of the costs of medical care. So for me for the actual birth I will only have to pay $125 for myself and $125 for the baby. The $125 is my copay for a hospital stay. The rest of the bill will be paid by my insurance company. 

Dishylo

@goldenB - I sometimes forget how lucky we are up in Canada.  The only thing I've had to pay for so far is $50 administration fee when I joined the maternity clinic (because my GP doesn't deliver babies anymore - much to my dismay). 

P.s - I love spreadsheets too!!  And lists, you can never go wrong with a good list!!

Dishylo

@hopeful808 - how much is your deductible?

nbbride06

It all depends on your insurance.  For instance, with my DD, I ended up with a c-section after 28 hours of labor.  The bill that came from the hospital was $90,000.  Nope, no extra zeros in there.  My doctor charged a flat fee for all prenatal care and delivery which was around $3,500.  I ended up paying $1,000 total.  That's because I have an out of pocket max on my insurance of $1,000.  So, I will pay $1,000 to have this baby too.

apickett925

The cost of the actual birth and prenatal care from my OB is just under $3,000.  With my insurance, it goes down to about $500.  

I've spent about $150 on maternity clothes so far....

I know it's un-couth to expect things, but I'm hoping we get a lot of our baby "stuff" from Showers, but we've got about $1500 set aside for furniture, strollers, carseats, and all the "stuff" if we need to buy it.  We were offered a very nice hand me down crib, but unfortunately it's maple and we like darker woods.

goldenB

@Dishylo -  yes, we are very lucky. I might consider paying for hypno-birthing classes and maybe a doula. Also, if my baby is breech, I would probably pay for a chiropractor (not sure if my insurance covers it) to help it turn.
I am also very open to other medical practitioners - including naturopaths, acupuncture etc if necessary. I would also pay out of pocket for any tests that my own OBGYN wouldn't do on me (blood tests - for example, I used progesterone cream because my naturopath tested me and I was low on progesterone and used a cream he recommended. My own doctor doesn't know I did this)

hopeful808

Dishylo said:

@hopeful808 - how much is your deductible?

My plan does not have a deductible. I have copays for all dr's visits/hospital stays year round. 

SunflowersBride

I have a $500 deductible and a $1,500 out of pocket max with my insurance, so that's the most I will pay for all prenatal care + birth.  Americans with health insurance will likely not pay the entire $9,600 to give birth.  If you don't have health insurance, or your insurance doesn't cover maternity, you can try to negotiate costs with your provider and the hospital, or see if you qualify for Medicaid.  I also believe there is something with Obamacare that helps with maternity coverage beginning in 2014.

Also, I hate these threads.  The American healthcare system is so fucked up, and I really don't want to be reminded about that constantly.  But here in America, many people still believe that everyone has to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" and nobody wants to pay more in taxes to ensure everyone receives healthcare (despite the fact that we all already pay for people who are uninsured through rising premiums and hospital bills).

Dishylo

goldenB said:

@Dishylo -  yes, we are very lucky. I might consider paying for hypno-birthing classes and maybe a doula. Also, if my baby is breech, I would probably pay for a chiropractor (not sure if my insurance covers it) to help it turn.
I am also very open to other medical practitioners - including naturopaths, acupuncture etc if necessary. I would also pay out of pocket for any tests that my own OBGYN wouldn't do on me (blood tests - for example, I used progesterone cream because my naturopath tested me and I was low on progesterone and used a cream he recommended. My own doctor doesn't know I did this)

I've heard of lot of positive things about hypno birthing and we're looking into it.  It is an extra cost but I'm the same, we'll pay for it if it's right for us. 

miam4

I called the insurance because I get confused about insurance in this country. They said that my max out of pocket is $500. Once the baby is born, they add the baby automatically on my insurance for the first 30 days, after that I need to make sure my employer sent the paper work to add the LO. So, since we will be 2 people, is $500 max out of pocket per person! Me and Lo paying there.

In Brazil, I used to have a good health insurance, and since you pay it monthly, you don't pay anything extra. If you don't have insurance there, you are in God's hands so you better be a very good prayer!

washyourhandsplease

My doctor charges $3200 for prenatal care & vaginal delivery.  I'm not sure about the hospital bill.  However, I have health insurance and my deductible is $1000.  Then after the deductible is met, my insurance pays 80% of all cost and I pay 20%.  However, my maximum out of pocket is $3000.  So I will pay no more than $3000 for everything, but I doubt I will even reach that amount.  I thinking total out of pocket will be about $1800. That's calculating my $1000 deductible plus 20% of $4000 which could be the hospital bill.  Also, my doctor's office has already put me on a payment plan.  Each time I have an appointment, I pay on the cost of the delivery.

sugarland726

fergy2186 said:

I try not to think about this too much. I am Canadian, and once a week my mum is on the phone marvelling at the fact I have to pay to have children, and reminding me how many times she said I should come home before getting pregnant. But, this is where I am at this point in my life, and there's nothing I can do about it now, so I just work with what I have!

Maybe it's because I am American and have never lived in another country, but my knee jerk response to your mother's statement is why shouldn't I have to pay to have my children? This is my choice and if my choice costs money, then I should be the one paying for it.

Yes, that is a very simplistic statement and doesn't begin to touch insurance or the differences between health care in countries.

ach298

We have a 2500 deductible so that is the most we will have to pay. With DS, we had a high deductible and an 80/20 coverage after that so DS's birth cost us close to 5000 with insurance.

ccip82

I had DD in the States and my hospital bill was a $250 deductible. That coupled with my copay for my doctor's appointments came to about $550.

In the UK they have nationalized healthcare so I do not pay anything to have this LO.

The US healthcare system is so fucked up. We have undeniably some of the best doctors, technology, and medicine in the world, but it is not available to everyone. Even those who are fortunate enough to have healthcare coverage in the US face a wide disparity when it comes to costs/coverage, etc.

ETA: Did I use the word disparity correctly in that sentence? It doesn't look right...

alanexo

I have blue cross blue shield and I only have to pay a one time copay of $20 the entire 9 months. Then I think I will be charged a $50 admittance fee to the hospital... So out of pocket for me shouldn't be more than $100 for the whole pregnancy. I live in the US.

Dishylo

@sugarland726 - agreed if you wanna have babies and you want to pay to have them - why not?!  It's definitely the choice of the person having them.  I had a friend who moved from the US to Canada with her husband but she left 3 months sooner than he did as you have to be here for 3 months before healthcare kicks in.  She did it just so they could get onto the healthcare system.

TNgoldengirl

I have two insurances, primary and secondary, until I'm 26, so it costs nothing to me. First time I had to meet a deductible of $1500 but it was all refunded when my other insurance kicked in.

tesskerr

I live in New Zealand. All medical visits are free for pregnancy and birth. Normal doctors visits are 35 dollars, they can recommend you see a specialist, then that would be free.
Scans are $50. Not sure why, they used to be free.

So I guess, $100 for the 2 scans? Then just baby stuff. It's $5 to pick up a prescription. I've also bought some vitamins.

I much prefer paying a little more tax to have health care covered. The system can be a little slow, and you can choose to have health insurance and go private if you want to.

We only have te option of a midwife for free. If we want a doctor to deliver, we have to pay about 4000-8000 I think. But if we needed the doctor, if would be free.

ashleywiz

Thank goodness for Kaiser in Hawaii. The only cost I had was $12 for my confirmation appointment and $3 for parking at each appointment. Everything else is 100% covered. Thanking my every lucky star!!!

nbbride06

For those of us in the US, you have to remember there are positives to our system as well.  Choice of doctors, choice of testing, extra ultrasounds, etc., choice of hospitals, choice to see specialists (assuming you have a PPO).  Not saying that one is better than the other necessarily, but there are definitely positives and negatives of all systems.

SunflowersBride

nbbride06 said:

For those of us in the US, you have to remember there are positives to our system as well.  Choice of doctors, choice of testing, extra ultrasounds, etc., choice of hospitals, choice to see specialists (assuming you have a PPO).  Not saying that one is better than the other necessarily, but there are definitely positives and negatives of all systems.

I think the US has a huge problem with overtreatment in general, so I don't know that all the extra testing and scans are necessarily always a positive thing.  But I realize that I'm pretty much in the minority with that viewpoint.

adunkin

In the US, our insurance would have us pay a total of $2,500 out of pocket for baby stuff. Like @washyourhandsplease we could end up paying $5,000 total since baby will likely come right after the new year. I have a friend whose insurance required them to pay the first 20k and then picked up everything else. Now that takes a lot of planning!

However, we live in Belgium and as expats our company pays for both our national health coverage and supplemental insurance. I pay about 20 Euro out of pocket for each appt (because it includes an ultrasound) and 5 Euro for each physical therapy appt (2x weekly).

The actual birth (private room in private hospital for 5 days), if uncomplicated, will cost around 7,000 Euro. About half of that will be paid by national insurance. The rest will be paid by our private insurance. We expect to pay less than 800 Euro for things not covered by insurance (things like an in-room TV, specialty room service, etc).

ashleywiz

SunflowersBride said:

nbbride06 said:

For those of us in the US, you have to remember there are positives to our system as well.  Choice of doctors, choice of testing, extra ultrasounds, etc., choice of hospitals, choice to see specialists (assuming you have a PPO).  Not saying that one is better than the other necessarily, but there are definitely positives and negatives of all systems.

I think the US has a huge problem with overtreatment in general, so I don't know that all the extra testing and scans are necessarily always a positive thing.  But I realize that I'm pretty much in the minority with that viewpoint.

I totally agree with you @sunflowersbride, the more I read about what's "routine" within healthcare the more I cringe a lot of the time. But...all we can do is work hard to be as healthy as possible so we don't have to worry about dealing with turning things down that we know aren't helpful in the long run! I don't ever opt for more appointments/scans/treatments than absolutely vital for that very reason.

ccip82

@adunkin I have to admit, I am slightly jealous of your private room set up. I know this sounds so trivial compared to other more important aspects of birth, but I am not looking forward to the maternity ward with every other new mom and their baby.

We have private coverage through DH's company, but there would still be some type of copay to go private and I would have to travel to London to give birth which is about 500 miles from Aberdeen!

adunkin

nbbride06 said:

For those of us in the US, you have to remember there are positives to our system as well.  Choice of doctors, choice of testing, extra ultrasounds, etc., choice of hospitals, choice to see specialists (assuming you have a PPO).  Not saying that one is better than the other necessarily, but there are definitely positives and negatives of all systems.

@nbbride06 - I would agree that choice is great. I'd also point out that some systems, like Belgium, allow all the same choice and even more covered procedures (without needing a PPO) for a fraction of the cost. Belgians do have to pay (a very minor amount) for their national health coverage. And Belgians also have very high taxes (but honestly a lot of that goes towards complicated bureaucracy and government institutions).

vstevens

SunflowersBride said:

nbbride06 said:

For those of us in the US, you have to remember there are positives to our system as well.  Choice of doctors, choice of testing, extra ultrasounds, etc., choice of hospitals, choice to see specialists (assuming you have a PPO).  Not saying that one is better than the other necessarily, but there are definitely positives and negatives of all systems.

I think the US has a huge problem with overtreatment in general, so I don't know that all the extra testing and scans are necessarily always a positive thing.  But I realize that I'm pretty much in the minority with that viewpoint.

ITA with Sunflowers. Also, I've been in the Canadian system and gotten excellent care with a lot of choice - functionally, there's not as many practical differences between single payer and the US private system as opponents would have you believe. I've been in both systems with serious illnesses (of family members), and I'd take Canada's 100% of the time. It's not perfect, but light years better than what I've experienced here in the US.

adunkin

ccip82 said:

@adunkin I have to admit, I am slightly jealous of your private room set up. I know this sounds so trivial compared to other more important aspects of birth, but I am not looking forward to the maternity ward with every other new mom and their baby.

We have private coverage through DH's company, but there would still be some type of copay to go private and I would have to travel to London to give birth which is about 500 miles from Aberdeen!

@ccip82 - Eeep. That travel would be nearly impossible, I'd think! We are incredibly lucky, I do know that. Many of our friends do not have full coverage at the private hospital. Though, honestly, as Americans we'd probably still just pay for it if we needed to. I know it seems crazy expensive to locals and others with universal healthcare, but it's still pretty on par with what we'd spend back home so no biggie.

OSUWifey09

I'm on Tricare, so I don't pay out of pocket for prenatal/birth. We have 30 days to enroll the baby in Tricare after birth. But, I also don't have the choice to use my own OB; my primary care physician doubles as my OB [he's awesome, though, so I'm OK with that] and I have to get referrals for EVERYTHING.

I was on Blue Cross/Blue Shield with my first, and I had a $300 universal fee, then wound up paying about $2K from hospital charges [I had a $2500 deductible].

EDIT: I think I lied about the "no choice" part. We have different umbrellas of Tricare, and I think I could change to a different umbrella [Tricare Standard] and be able to use whoever I want, but pay more out of pocket.

Dishylo

@tarajeannette - I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for this to rattle or scare anybody.  It's just that when I read that article, I couldn't believe it would cost that much to have babies.  Of course they don't mention that the insurance kicks in and (as I've read above) for most people, the payments are much, much less.  I hope you fight the Mat21 test and win!!

hopeful808

tarajeannette said:

 I have cigna insurance and halfway through my first trimester, I switched to HMO because the 90/10 (they pay 90%) of the PPO out of pocket was already hitting me too hard. Maybe only $200 between copay and the 10% of tests, but I'm trying to save as much as I can for maternity leave so my budget is strict. 

I actually just got a $2700 bill for the Mat21 test, which my doctor recommmended and also said insurance would cover. I'm going to fight that one. I took it because he said I should. I will have just turned 35 when the baby is born, but honestly I didn't really want to take those kinds of tests. Bah. 

I'm having an orientation at a birthing center on Sunday, so I will find out if they take my insurance and what my out of pocket will be. I'm terrified. I feel like I really don't know what this baby will cost and I'm just going to get huge bills in the mail. 

I'm in the US, by the way. NYC. 

If you switched insurances or types of insurance than it may be that your new one doesn't cover the MAT21 test. Even if they are in the same company different policies and policy types cover different things or have different requirements for preautherization for tests/procedures.

Mollyappleseed

I am American. I have health insurance but it does not cover maternity. Not sure where the figure of $9,600 comes from! I shopped around to find an OB who will cost me $3,500 due in full by my 8th month. That does not include any of the hospital charges which I am anticipating being in the $10,000-$15,000 if all goes well. Am I happy about this? Absolutely not. But that being said I chose to get pregnant knowing it was not covered by insurance. We are just over the income limits to recieve aid. I just wasn't expecting it to cost quite this much.

mommygrams0730

I think it's interesting that the US is one of the only countries to have the health care system we have...but don't kid yourself we have government funded health care (for those who can't get insurance or can't pay for it, they qualify for state medical assistance) that many people use...so since we are paying for that why not make it universal for all??

That said, I really like my insurance. Part of my premium goes toward an account to use for appts etc so aside from my premium I don't pay anything else out of pocket. Once that money is used up they cover the rest. So with this one we won't have to pay outside the premium.

Lauguz86

Well am from Mexico and I live in California since year 2001 I was working for a carpenter union and I had a pretty good health insurance and when I deliver my baby girl I got very sick and hospital end up charging 53,589 dollars to my insurance and I only pay $1000 co-payment.

COgirl29

I'm in the US and the max ill pay out of pocket with my insurance is $400. Due date is jan 1st so if baby comes in 2013 it will be even less since I've paid some towards my deductible already this year. If born in 2014 then I will pay the full $400. I don't know anyone personally that has paid the 9k figure - the most any of my friends have had to pay is 3k.

cnwilbur1030

I have a highish deductible this year. So I will def pay 4,000 since that's my deductible. For 2014, we are switching to a lower deductible of 2,000. So if this baby doesn't come early (come on baby just a few weeks early!) we will pay 6,000. Now with DD, we had a kick-a** HMO and we paid $150 total from first OB visit to follow up visit.

valigrl21

My doctor sent me an "estimate", assuming a med-free vaginal delivery, I will pay $3,800. But that doesn't include ultrasounds or labs, which I think I have already spent around a $1,000 in u/s and lab work. And obviously, the bill will be more if there are complications. So I am trying to budget around $5,000 just in medical bills to have this baby.

bensmommy518

I think that as you can see from previous posts it all really does depend on how good your individual insurance is in the US.  for DS and for this baby my total out of pocket expenses will be $125.  But I am someone who has awsome insurance and chose to have very low deductibles.  Out of curiosity I looked up online on my insurance companys website what the total cost for DS wasand it was over $30,000 and that was a normal vaginal delivery with an epidural.  I never once got a bill except my $100 hospital deductible and my $25 global maternity fee for the doctor.