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This is one that always shocks people. I realize it varies from area to area but we pay 32k a year after materials and the “optional” gymnastics class fees.
I say optional because we were the only people who apparently didn’t want to do it so I caved after I heard my little guy sat inside all alone during it twice a week.
That's how they get you. My kids daycare had tons of events that were extra and they isolate the poor kids like crazy. It's cheaper to quit your job and watch your kid if you're a 2 parent household
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again for those who want/need to hear it… my vasectomy cost me a $20 co-pay and it’s been the best financial decision of my life haha
there is nothing wrong if someone really wants to have kids as their own blood relatives someday. However I do think this is very helpful for most people. Because you can have the concept of nothing unplanned happening, and can always choose to adopt later if you change your mind givign a home to a baby that really needs it-- yes I know adoption isn't a simple process but neither is having a birth baby. they are both complex and expensive processes.
I did some after hours renovating at a daycare facility at one point. I was blown away at how much they banked from the silly junk parents paid for. He'd rent a place and do a drama production every year with all these 3 and 4 year old kids and the parents ate it up....even if they shouldn't have been spending the money on it.
If you don't want to be a single income family, then search for someone providing care in their home. Your child will likely be better off and you may save quite a bit. My wife has provided care in our home off and on over the last 10 years across two states. When my wife operated as a state certified child development home (CDH) in our home she was required to create curriculums, meal plans, and had random monthly inspections.
Using the benefits entitled to you as a taxpayer and American citizen is not "working the system". Your friend went to school to better herself and be able to provide better for her family, she still worked hard. If you had qualified for those programs you could have used them, too.
It's understandable that you might have regrets or anger towards the fact that you weren't able to afford having your own bio kids until it was too hard for your body to take on but please try not to direct that towards people using assistance. This idea of people living off of "working the system" is a dangerous one, even on benefits people are working hard and scraping to just get by.
I will never understand someone who looks at a person living in poverty getting a little drop of help from the government they pay taxes to their entire life and takes away the idea that that person is somehow better off than them or is abusing the system somehow. Most people would rather earn their own way and provide for themselves, but sometimes you just need some help and heaven knows we pay enough to deserve that. The "village" we used to lean on is gone, something has to take its place. I truly believe humans are not meant to parent alone, but that is what our society is now.
I’m due in April and my daycare costs will be more than my rent. I did a lot of research before I got pregnant so I knew roughly what I’d be dealing with but it blows people’s minds when I tell them how much childcare costs.
Normal vaginal delivery, $12k for me and $5k for my kid.
A friend had a 29-weeker. The kid was in the NICU for 3 months. That bill was over a million.
So, yes. And that’s just the birth. Not the maintenance and upkeep for the next 18 or so years.
I have a $10k quarter in my drawer upstairs in a jar. My son swallowed it around 2 years old. It got stuck but did not obstruct his breathing (thank god), by the time he was seen at the ER it was fully in his stomach and they said it would pass.
Dug through poop for a week and it did not pass. It was too big, so they had to sedate him, put a tube down his throat and fish it out..
Holy shit. I spent 5 minutes and gave up. I wanted to find it but there is a Tairy Green (Tim and Eric) skit where Zack glafinakis yells “WHERES MY QUARTER” in an absurd inexplicable manner and it has never been so appropriate.
If you have insurance look at an Explanation of Benefits for a doctor visit. it'll show what the doctor tried to charge (usually some higher amount so that IF you have insurance that pays that much, they get top dollar), then the allowed amount. Medicare and Medicaid will only pay some limited amount for services. If the doctor accepts Medicare (the one I have experience with) then all they can get paid for is this reduced amount.
I'm also curious what the hospitals costs actually are. Just to take a guess, they must make a good profit on those with great, high paying insurance, then a range of smaller profits (or even losses?) down to Medicare/Medicaid which must pay the least.
Finally there are the partial or full balances that real people owe, and some percentage of those must not get paid at all and be total losses.
Technically 2 babies (1 mill each) but yeah I get your point.
My twins weighed 1.5 lbs each at birth. So there was a ton of medical intervention needed - specialized equipment, 24/7 monitoring. It’s amazing the technology they have to allow babies born that early to not only survive but thrive. No long term health issues, both babies are now happy & healthy 13 year olds
They bill $2,000,000 - now if Medicaid has a contracts with the hospital they will never get paid that, even without contracts they will NEVER pay that.
Source: Work in the hell industry- sorry in insurance.
I guess it's for records reasons since the baby is now the patient. It's just hilarious to think about.
"Hi Timmy, here's $5k in debt just for being born! Get used to it, because it gets way worse when you get older."
For what it's worth, for anyone reading this who hasn't been through it, the child expenses are usually not for the birth itself, but for the care it receives immediately after and for the couple days in the hospital.
Already 10min old and hasn't found a job yet! Lazy free loader! Kids gotta learn what it's like to live in the real world and take responsibility for their own bills. Can't expect no government hand out here!
If the hospital could give a baby a million dollar bill for being born so that they worked in servitude the rest of their life, hospitals would 100% do it
Yep! The newborn uses services at the hospital. Additionally, it will probably take a couple months to get everything hammered out as far as insurance goes. I know I spent HOURS on the phone with the insurance and the hospital getting her added and billed correctly.
You also have to get the paperwork started to add the baby to the plan asap after birth, your gonna have a bad time if you wait to long to add them to your policy.
As I've said to other replies, I understand it. It's a separate human and separate patient now. I just also found it funny to think about, despite seeing the logic.
You might like this too then... The babies also have demographic info in their charts and (because I'm an idiot) it always amuses me that this tiny little tater tot is lying there in a hospital bed and their electronic health record is calling them out like "single, unemployed."
My NICU baby did have her own health profile online and did accumulate her own bills but it was all billed to me as the policy holder, lol. We haven’t gotten bills actually in her name.
Yep, have to ensure they have medical debt for life by starting them off with it.
But seriously, this is why adding them to your health insurance immediately is so important.
Can you just not do that and have the baby declare bankruptcy. It will be long gone by the time they're 18.
Edit: Looked it up and no. Parent is responsible.
Oh, I can only laugh because I have almost zero chance of ever having kids. I cant afford my own life. I sure as hell can't bring a helpless being into it.
Sheesh! My wife and I only paid $2000 for her delivery, and she was induced and stayed in the hospital 3 nights (no NICU, though). Her insurance covered the remainder.
Crazy!!! My son was born in 2000 at a Catholic hospital (may be relevant?). We didn’t have insurance and prenatal visits, vitamins, delivery, breastfeeding classes, everything was $3000!
That is a lot compared to a quality work provided insurance in 2000.. My older daughter was premie in NICU for 2 weeks along with my then wife's stay. The total bill was about $25K that was passed onto my insurance. I'm not sure if Medicaid paid for any of it, but I paid $100 out of pocket. They also paid for a very expensive breast pump.
Looking back I have no idea how my mom did it. Single mom in poverty wages to two kids. Granted we weren't doing extracurriculars and she had her parents who watched us (we even lived with them for several years) and we ate there a lot. But, somehow she kept us in private schools for half our schooling (I know there were "scholarships" for at least a cpl of those), and generally I don't think we ever felt like we were missing anything.
I had to pay $7500 cash at 20 weeks, even though I had my own BCBS coverage AND was on my husband’s policy.
Then, our girl was born slightly early at 37 weeks - inhaled amniotic fluid during delivery which meant a 7 day stay in the NICU.
We got a bill for $1.4 million from BCBS because the hospital apparently had ME as the NICU patient instead of our newborn daughter.
Had to appeal to get them to cover it. It took months to correct an extremely simple error.
Still ended up paying $10K out of pocket. The healthcare system is beyond broken.
Yep. had twins born early and were in the nicu for about a month. They billed for each baby individually from birth to release. We got the bill and laughed while dying inside. Over a mil and we were making like 50k a year.
Insurance covers everything after the baby's out of pocket maximum. In 2024 that can be no more than $18,900 for a family, and can be much less depending on the plan design.
If the baby is on Medicaid or has really good insurance the family may have no cost sharing whatsoever.
For us, our bill was over a million. Insurance paid a major amount but we owed about $100K, this was 36 years ago. It took us years to pay all the medical bills plus my husband stayed home to take care of her, so we were a one income family. People asked why we don’t have a house, my daughter’s my house… lol
Check to see if she qualifies for pregnancy medicaid and then the baby medicaid.
That's what happened to us. I made to much for 2 people to get medicaid but we did qualify for pregnancy medicaid and then we qualified for the kids to be on medicaid. Because of that it was about $300 total out of pocket with my insurance and medicaid.
We had insurance when my fist was born, but couldn’t afford the extra $1,000 a month to add baby to insurance after the first month, so baby and I both ended up going on Medicaid. The unexpected bonus was that Medicaid paid the $3000 or so still owing from the birth that insurance hadn’t covered.
Good grief we’ve never even had the option to have an insurance max oop that low! Didn’t know they existed.
The latest and greatest our plan has done is to divide out my husband and I’s deductibles so now there are two separate deductibles. If we both need major care in a year we are pretty fucked.
And if that $5,000 is an individual (not family deductible) then mom’s bills don’t count toward babies deductible. Now many standard things are covered before the deductible (well child visits, vaccinations) but don’t assume a perfectly healthy need free baby.
Something tells me why this countries birth rates are stagnating and politicians need immigration to bring in more labor. Little do the immigrants know what debt trap they’re walking into
If you live in the US and your state offers it, you may want to consider switching to a lower deductible government health care plan. Kids also get sick often and $5k a year has to be weighed against the total cost of the premium and how much you’ll use it. Don’t forget too that different minimums apply based on whether or not the doctor and hospital are “in network”.
On a related note. for having a baby, if there's even small issues, you're going to cap not just your deductible, but your maximum out of pocket. We opted for a larger deductible and a lower max out of pocket. With out first kid we totally maxxed it out and probably saved ourselves a good 8-9k that year. Second kid wasn't AS expensive but we still hit the max out of pocket pretty easily.
I opted to enroll in the high deductible plan at my job last yr bc the other plan was just so expensive I couldn't imagine paying for it and it limited coverage to only the hospital system I work in, which is very local and not available outside of my immediate area. so I chose the cheaper high deductible plan that had an extended coverage network in case God forbid I get sick or hurt on vacation or s/t. I was so stressed and just resolved not to get sick enough to need medical care this year lmao. if I die, I die y'know?
well, come to find out the new medication I'm prescribed is $15,000/mo. no generic. insurance covers it but the copay is $1,800. as it turns out, though, the drug manufacturer offers a "coupon" which brings the price I pay down to $5/mo. insurance has no way of knowing--the only information they have is that the final cost is $1,800. as of today I have hit my deductible for the year and by this time next month I'll have hit my out of pocket maximum and all my healthcare will theoretically be free after that. I'm so fucking giddy, I feel like I've found the cheat code and all it took was being diagnosed with a rare disorder that only one prohibitively fucking expensive medication is approved to treat
If you think the birth is expensive, DON’T have kids. That’s like saying a puppy is expensive because it costs hundreds of dollars. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. It costs tens of thousands a year to have kids, minimum.
This. If you don’t know how you will afford them and care for them, don’t do it. Kids are expensive. I had great insurance with Amazon and still paid about $3000 for delivery, both C-section. But the child suffers the most when you can’t afford them.
Exactly. Don’t do it if you can’t afford it. Why would you want your child to suffer because of your bad decisions?
I also don’t get women who just decide to have (and keep) the baby because an abortion is “too expensive”. Like, how much do you think it costs to raise a kid?! 🤦🏼♀️
Agree with you 100%. If your financial situation is so dire that a $5k medical bill seems hopelessly out of reach, please do not get pregnant and bring a child into this world. The expenses will only increase from there.
And before anyone comes after me, I have been in tough financial situations in the past myself. But I also took things seriously, and either just didn’t have sex, or took precautions so no pregnancies happened… because it would’ve been irresponsible to have a child at the time. I wish more people felt the same way.
We were on Medicaid when my kids were born and we were so lucky for that because my son ended up in the nicu on a ventilator for a week to the tune of over $250k. Luckily we didn't have to pay it but there is no way we could have planned for it if we did.
Kids are expensive which is why people are not having as many now.
Yeah. My wife and I had amazing insurance and I think we payed $3,750 almost 2 years ago.
Also, something I learned. Don't buy used car seats. Car seats not only expire, but you are also supposed to discard them after a wreck. Even a minor one. Since you don't know the history of one at a 2nd hand shop, the only safe option is to buy new.
We spent $800 buying 2 car seats that will grow with our baby till they are completely out of them. Cheaper options out there, but that one necessity really is a big one.
Oh, and budget for formula. Most parents don't plan on it, but often you do not get an option. Sometimes breastfeeding does not work, and formula is expensive.
Formula and diapers are really expensive. Thousands of dollars a year. Add in clothing and daycare it gets tough to pay for it all. Kids are not cheap.
With these expenses, there is absolutely nothing wrong with using store-brand diapers/formula, and thrifting clothes. Target (in my opinion) has the best store brand, even when my youngest needed special formula.
You can find new or almost new kids clothing thrifting, because they grow so darn fast. Also, shop the clearance at the end of a season up a size for the next year.
Still expensive, but if you really plan ahead, you can save a lot. Let other people buy the new stuff, then get it 2nd hand!
Most hospitals will have a payment plan available, and if your income is lower, they might offer financial assistance. It’s worth applying for, often the income level is higher than other programs.
To add to this, if you get a % discount it can often be applied to other bills too. For example, got a % off and anesthesiologist practice (they worked with hospital but weren’t part of the hospital so separate billing) accepted the discount too. You will need to talk to them but it could save a lot of money too.
Just had our daughter in October. Switch to a low deductible plan in the Open Enrollment period before you intend to get pregnant. Specially add a "7-day short term disability" rider to your plan.
Plan to contribute the entire deductible to a HSA the same year you intend to become pregnant.
What this means is that you'll be able to collect disability as a percentage of your normal pay beginning on the 7th day after having the baby (instead of the 30th) and continuing through your 12-week FMLA allowance. Rather than just being off work and making no money, you'll actually get paid take care of the baby.
Our out of pocket was zero other than incidentals like gas and diapers and stuff. We're on Michigan BCBS.
Worth noting here that most plans only offer an HSA if your plan is high deductible. You can typically do an FSA regardless. There are key differences between the two, so if you do this, read the fine print on the FSA (money often is use-it-or-lose-it, lower max contribution, etc.)
Most short term disability plans have a 12 month preexisting condition exclusion. So if you’re already pregnant, it won’t pay out. Better to sign up for it a year before you plan to get pregnant so that it will. At least you know for baby #2
That’s a low end. Don’t forget you’re going to have a separate bill from the hospital, the obgyn dr, if she gets numbed up then that’s the anesthesia dr, and I feel like I’m missing another bill in there… $5,000 is just your deductible but don’t forget about your copay. Is there a $0 copay when the deductible is met? Because if not that’s another 10-20% of allowable charges.
Third world'shish here (Chile) cost $0 for c section, just pay for parking and snacks, goverment here gives a crib and a lot of things for parents. (All free)
Even follow ups once the kid grows up are free, milk is also free here for the baby. (Mine is 3 and a half and we still get free milk from the goverment)
All care for kids are free in the public health system here (and of excellent quality to boot) even dental is free.
Cant believe how expensive the US have gotten lately, when I lived there it wasnt this bad.
Good luck guys :)
Not at the hospital I was at! Once baby was in the NICU my husband was given a pass, but I was in the hospital for 2 weeks before the baby was born, and it was $21/day for him to visit me every day.
Third world country here, and even without insurance a vaginal birth in a private clinic is between 1500 and 2500 pen (like between $400 and $650), and in order to compare, our minimum wage a year is 15,500 pen. C section, around 4000 pen. It can be "expensive" but you can pay it in installments.
With insurance, we paid 600 pen for a c section and 3 day stay at the clinic. Also, all pre natal appointments were free, it also included 2 somograms, but the doctor wanted us to have 2 more (just to be ultra safe) and we did have to pay for those. Oh, and all appointments for my kiddo for the first 2 years are also free.
Right? Can’t believe it whenever I see this posts, my wife and I live in Canada and have two kids. First one was briefly in the NICU, and the second was a business-hours birth. Only thing we paid for was parking and snacks…
Not if you live in a socialist country. I’m American but gave birth to my two children while living and working in France (a socialist country). All prenatal care was covered 100% as was all postnatal care, and I received 80% of my previous year’s salary because of health issues I was unable to work from the time I was three months pregnant. I had a midwife come to my house every day to check on me and never paid a penny for any cost associated with the pregnancy delivery or my child after it was born. Yeah, the taxes are higher there but guess what? They actually cover stuff like universal healthcare.
Cousin just had a kid and had complications. Bill was over 100k. With insurance, they walked away with a little under 20k but yeah...thanks private healthcare. One of the line items was "skin time" and it was $40. When they asked, it was when the baby was brought back in after it was cleaned but before it went to the nursery for the first time.
I used midwives and a birthing center, I was on medicare at the time, and it covered everything, but if it hadn't, my entire pregnancy and labor care would have only been around 3500.
That part. My birthing center is out of network unfortunately but worth the $7500 cash pay patient discount. I will file for out of network benefits when they superbill me after birth so hopefully we'll get back a little something since I have a good low-deductible plan that covers out of network benefits at 70%. I still found it to be superior to traditional OBGYN office care.
I loved my midwives, and feel like I got much better and more personalized care. The birthing center was also more like a big comfortable home than a clinic or hospital.
Typically it costs way more. The ductile you speak of is your yearly. So if delivering the baby is your only medical expense that year, yes you pay $5k. If you had other medical expenses that go towards said deductible, is that much less.
I assume you're in the US. We have a pretty fun system, but people keep voting against their own interests because they think it's either this or communism lol. Most people would save money over universal healthcare but they won't listen. So, this is what we are left with. 🤷♂️
I’m 9 months pregnant and paid $5k in copays and deductibles in the first two trimesters. Nothing birth related included, just prenatal care. This is with “good” private insurance.
Idk how anyone is paying for kids. Other than "we have to". My partner and I have completely given up on the idea of having kids unless we win the lottery... which we don't play, so 😂 I have always known having kids is an expensive investment, but I never knew how expensive it'd gotten. Are kids going to be considered a luxury...?
I had an older woman in my life tell me "just have kids! You'll never be ready! If I thought about if I could feed any of my kids, they wouldn't be here!" And I knew she could see my shock. That's how I lived growing up - unsure of food, for one, couldn't imagine intentionally doing that to a kid knowing my situation. It's considered so selfish rn not to have kids, but I'd feel selfish doing it knowing I, personally, can't ensure they have everything they need.
Then I get to these threads and realize DAYCARE IS 3k A MONTH
WHAT THE HELL
It overshadowed so much of my understanding. Really. HOW do people pay this? Just really good income combined and budgeting? Even with rent increases, thats more than some pretty high rent! That could get you a 2 bedroom apartment! Whats going on 😩😂
(Editing to add that ik she comes from a different generation and why some had the mindset of just repopulate no matter the cost)
If you can’t handle a 5k expenditure, you probably aren’t ready to have a baby. Consider that if one of you or the baby gets sick you will have to pay the deductible in the another year.
Makes me appreciate the great health insurance my wife carries for the family. Our bill for child delivery was $100 deductible. If our daughter needed special care (NICU) - there would have been no additional cost. Healthcare cost in our country is insane.
You may want to see if there are midwife practices in your area. They often work under a physician practice. Most births are uncomplicated. Nurse midwives ( certified midwives, not lay midwives) have extensive experience with deliveries that are natural. My second child was with a midwife. It went smoothly and I did not have a big episiotomy. You need good insurance in case there are complications. Also, babies do not care if clothes are new or not, or toys. Just safe car seats, cribs and breast feeding safe a lot of money and worry. Parenthood is wonderful
You have to watch out too because sometimes insurance just won't cover certain things or only cover a portion.
For example, I had twins. After the initial discovery, I called my insurance to make sure they covered a multiple birth. They said yes, but in reality, we ended up paying a lot out of pocket. I.E.: My insurance "covered" ultrasound screenings but since there were two fetuses, I had to have extra long appointments that cost more than standard ($600/$300). There were also some complications which meant I needed ultrasounds weekly in the last trimester. My doctor didn't tell me insurance was denying the extra appointments. We ended up owing an additional $7,500 in addition to our deductible and co-pay.
You might qualify for supplemental Medicaid. My family did. We paid for normal insurance but the supplemental picked up what the main insurance didn’t. My twins were in the nicu for 2 weeks each and I had a very complicated delivery and had high level care for 3 or the 5 days I was there. We didn’t pay a cent. It was a life saver for us.
Only 5k? Dude, my deductible was 6k for myself. Then when he was born he became a whole person who also racked up bills for being born and being monitored, so he was another about 6k deductible bc my company’s family deductible is 12k
Edit: bc I realized I put a 4 instead of 6. They just raised it again this year yay /s
The cost of birth is peanuts compared to what everything else will cost.
Walk me through your plan:
Now you had a baby, does your wife have a good maternity plan? What if the baby needs specialty formula and allergic to regular diapers?
Now daycare. Have you looked into the cost of that?
Now the baby is sick who can take a day off work to take care of baby?
Not saying its impossible, just majority of people dont look at any of that before having a kid. My recommendation? No debt except mortgage and student loan, 3-6 months of income in savings, then you are ready to have a kid. Because hospital bill you can finance and pay a monthly payment until its paid off and since you got no debt and savings you can float the extra cost of diapers, formula and daycare and that monthly hospital bill not to mention all the doctors visit and copays bc no one needs a doc more often than a pp woman or a newborn. Because there is nothing worse than being ridiculously sleep deprived and stressed about finances which is what will happen the first 3-6 months of a childs life if you have a kid before financially stable.
My first child cost us around $500. By my 3rd child, I was on a high deductible plan, and it cost us around that. All of the prenatal appointments contributed to the deductible and my wife had a C-section, so it was expensive. Luckily my kid was born in January so we basically paid for nothing the rest of the year and I was able to build up my HSA.
You get $2000 child tax credit for having a baby. $3000+ is a little more manageable. How do people manage to pay for a baby? I imagine the same way they manage to pay for a $40k+ vehicle. Monthly through massive interest on debt.
I have military insurance and husband was active duty, so don't honestly remember getting a bill. I would imagine it wasn't cheap though given she was 8 weeks early and spent 49 days in NICU.
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Yes, it really costs that. Have you priced out daycare?
This is one that always shocks people. I realize it varies from area to area but we pay 32k a year after materials and the “optional” gymnastics class fees. I say optional because we were the only people who apparently didn’t want to do it so I caved after I heard my little guy sat inside all alone during it twice a week.
An optional gymnastics fee AND they made your kid sit inside all alone while all the other kids went? Wtf?
That's how they get you. My kids daycare had tons of events that were extra and they isolate the poor kids like crazy. It's cheaper to quit your job and watch your kid if you're a 2 parent household
What if that’s what they tell all the parents so everyone is guilted into paying for the optional classes!
"we are going to leave your child unattended" Doesn't sound legit for a daycare.
I'm pretty sure they mean with no other children, just a staff member, while all the other children do gymnastics.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again for those who want/need to hear it… my vasectomy cost me a $20 co-pay and it’s been the best financial decision of my life haha
I kinda wanted kids but realized I probably could never afford them so ✂️
We stopped after one. Couldn’t afford to get my son a sibling.
Cost my husband 4,000 since we didn’t meet our deductible yet when he had it done
That's silo stupid. That should be free as it might lower the future costs for the insurance provider.
Not if it increases costs in premiums collected for the family plan
That isn’t really comparable or helpful if you want kids though
It was moreso for those on the fence.
If you slip while standing on the fence, you can get your vasectomy for free. SLPT
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there is nothing wrong if someone really wants to have kids as their own blood relatives someday. However I do think this is very helpful for most people. Because you can have the concept of nothing unplanned happening, and can always choose to adopt later if you change your mind givign a home to a baby that really needs it-- yes I know adoption isn't a simple process but neither is having a birth baby. they are both complex and expensive processes.
My bisalp was a grand total of $0.
Me too! Best $0 I ever paid. Husband got snipped too, so if I get knocked up, it's Jesus.
I did some after hours renovating at a daycare facility at one point. I was blown away at how much they banked from the silly junk parents paid for. He'd rent a place and do a drama production every year with all these 3 and 4 year old kids and the parents ate it up....even if they shouldn't have been spending the money on it. If you don't want to be a single income family, then search for someone providing care in their home. Your child will likely be better off and you may save quite a bit. My wife has provided care in our home off and on over the last 10 years across two states. When my wife operated as a state certified child development home (CDH) in our home she was required to create curriculums, meal plans, and had random monthly inspections.
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Hugs to a good person.
Using the benefits entitled to you as a taxpayer and American citizen is not "working the system". Your friend went to school to better herself and be able to provide better for her family, she still worked hard. If you had qualified for those programs you could have used them, too. It's understandable that you might have regrets or anger towards the fact that you weren't able to afford having your own bio kids until it was too hard for your body to take on but please try not to direct that towards people using assistance. This idea of people living off of "working the system" is a dangerous one, even on benefits people are working hard and scraping to just get by. I will never understand someone who looks at a person living in poverty getting a little drop of help from the government they pay taxes to their entire life and takes away the idea that that person is somehow better off than them or is abusing the system somehow. Most people would rather earn their own way and provide for themselves, but sometimes you just need some help and heaven knows we pay enough to deserve that. The "village" we used to lean on is gone, something has to take its place. I truly believe humans are not meant to parent alone, but that is what our society is now.
I’m due in April and my daycare costs will be more than my rent. I did a lot of research before I got pregnant so I knew roughly what I’d be dealing with but it blows people’s minds when I tell them how much childcare costs.
My first son's hospital bill was 20k, and that was 30 years go. And that's just birth. Then then the real expenses start rolling in. Good luck.
Yup. Around here we’re looking at 20k-26k for 5 days a week
Or diapers and formula
Just want until college...
I keep thinking about this and then coming to the realization that I'm basically gonna be a stay at home dad and won't have to worry about paying that
Normal vaginal delivery, $12k for me and $5k for my kid. A friend had a 29-weeker. The kid was in the NICU for 3 months. That bill was over a million. So, yes. And that’s just the birth. Not the maintenance and upkeep for the next 18 or so years.
I had twins in the NICU for 120 and 125 days. Over a million each. I call them my million dollar babies to this day lol
I have a $10k quarter in my drawer upstairs in a jar. My son swallowed it around 2 years old. It got stuck but did not obstruct his breathing (thank god), by the time he was seen at the ER it was fully in his stomach and they said it would pass. Dug through poop for a week and it did not pass. It was too big, so they had to sedate him, put a tube down his throat and fish it out..
Holy shit. I spent 5 minutes and gave up. I wanted to find it but there is a Tairy Green (Tim and Eric) skit where Zack glafinakis yells “WHERES MY QUARTER” in an absurd inexplicable manner and it has never been so appropriate.
Did you actually have to pay 2 million dollars? Did insurance cover some of that? That would be a lifetime of debt for many.
No way. If a baby is in the NICU for 31 days, they automatically qualify for Medicaid so luckily Medicaid paid for the entire NICU stay.
It’s crazy to think about Medicaid paying $2,000,000 for one baby’s healthcare, unless the government gets a discount or something lol
It’s almost like the numbers are made up and it doesn’t actually cost the hospitals that much.
If you have insurance look at an Explanation of Benefits for a doctor visit. it'll show what the doctor tried to charge (usually some higher amount so that IF you have insurance that pays that much, they get top dollar), then the allowed amount. Medicare and Medicaid will only pay some limited amount for services. If the doctor accepts Medicare (the one I have experience with) then all they can get paid for is this reduced amount. I'm also curious what the hospitals costs actually are. Just to take a guess, they must make a good profit on those with great, high paying insurance, then a range of smaller profits (or even losses?) down to Medicare/Medicaid which must pay the least. Finally there are the partial or full balances that real people owe, and some percentage of those must not get paid at all and be total losses.
Technically 2 babies (1 mill each) but yeah I get your point. My twins weighed 1.5 lbs each at birth. So there was a ton of medical intervention needed - specialized equipment, 24/7 monitoring. It’s amazing the technology they have to allow babies born that early to not only survive but thrive. No long term health issues, both babies are now happy & healthy 13 year olds
Govt gets huge discount
They bill $2,000,000 - now if Medicaid has a contracts with the hospital they will never get paid that, even without contracts they will NEVER pay that. Source: Work in the hell industry- sorry in insurance.
Just out of curiosity, how are we able to pay this lol. I’m so glad they’re okay!
We don’t pay it. A long NICU stay automatically gets picked up by Medicaid. This kind of debt would financially devastate 90% of the population.
Wait, they give the newborn their own bill? That's really funny to me for some reason.
Gotta pull itself up by its bootstraps someday, no time like the present!
I guess it's for records reasons since the baby is now the patient. It's just hilarious to think about. "Hi Timmy, here's $5k in debt just for being born! Get used to it, because it gets way worse when you get older."
For what it's worth, for anyone reading this who hasn't been through it, the child expenses are usually not for the birth itself, but for the care it receives immediately after and for the couple days in the hospital.
You are exactly right. Both ways- it's ridiculous.
Insurance has out-of-pocket limits per person, so when they charge the baby they can still get money.
They charge for crazy things like holding your kid
Already 10min old and hasn't found a job yet! Lazy free loader! Kids gotta learn what it's like to live in the real world and take responsibility for their own bills. Can't expect no government hand out here!
These infants just need to stop eating avocado toast
Pull yourself up by your diaper straps
If the hospital could give a baby a million dollar bill for being born so that they worked in servitude the rest of their life, hospitals would 100% do it
Yep! The newborn uses services at the hospital. Additionally, it will probably take a couple months to get everything hammered out as far as insurance goes. I know I spent HOURS on the phone with the insurance and the hospital getting her added and billed correctly.
Logically, it makes sense as the baby is now a separate human and separate patient. I just found it funny, even if I get it logically. :)
Gotta give that baby a proper American welcome!
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You also have to get the paperwork started to add the baby to the plan asap after birth, your gonna have a bad time if you wait to long to add them to your policy.
Yup. My kid was jaundiced and had to lie under a blue light to treat it. I was discharged 48 hours after delivery, but she was still a patient.
Why wouldn't they? The baby needs it's own medical record.
As I've said to other replies, I understand it. It's a separate human and separate patient now. I just also found it funny to think about, despite seeing the logic.
You might like this too then... The babies also have demographic info in their charts and (because I'm an idiot) it always amuses me that this tiny little tater tot is lying there in a hospital bed and their electronic health record is calling them out like "single, unemployed."
That actually did give me a chuckle. :) "You're 12 hours old, time to get to work!"
My NICU baby did have her own health profile online and did accumulate her own bills but it was all billed to me as the policy holder, lol. We haven’t gotten bills actually in her name.
Yep, have to ensure they have medical debt for life by starting them off with it. But seriously, this is why adding them to your health insurance immediately is so important.
When you’re under 18, your parents are legally responsible for bill, not the minor.
Can you just not do that and have the baby declare bankruptcy. It will be long gone by the time they're 18. Edit: Looked it up and no. Parent is responsible.
"Welcome to Earth, little Timmy! That'll be $5,000. Better get used to it, because it's only going up from here!"
In 1993, I had a c section and my son was in nicu for a week. $18k or me, $12k for him. The two bills represent the care given to each.
The smiling will fade quickly when the bill gets presented to you, the financially responsible parent.
Oh, I can only laugh because I have almost zero chance of ever having kids. I cant afford my own life. I sure as hell can't bring a helpless being into it.
Mine was 34 weeks and my bill was 500k but all we paid was 2k deductible
Jesus 500k? There's no fucking way it costs that much to them, you Americans are getting ripped off so much
That’s American healthcare, baby! When we need to tell our loved ones to NOT call an ambulance because it’ll kill us with medical debt
Lol. Welcome to corporate greed.
Oh there’s no maternity leave either
Sheesh! My wife and I only paid $2000 for her delivery, and she was induced and stayed in the hospital 3 nights (no NICU, though). Her insurance covered the remainder.
Crazy!!! My son was born in 2000 at a Catholic hospital (may be relevant?). We didn’t have insurance and prenatal visits, vitamins, delivery, breastfeeding classes, everything was $3000!
That is a lot compared to a quality work provided insurance in 2000.. My older daughter was premie in NICU for 2 weeks along with my then wife's stay. The total bill was about $25K that was passed onto my insurance. I'm not sure if Medicaid paid for any of it, but I paid $100 out of pocket. They also paid for a very expensive breast pump.
>Not the maintenance and upkeep for the next 18 or so years. This is what I thought the title was referring to - annual maintainance and upkeep.
Kids are hella expensive! I’m taking mine to the eye doctor this afternoon and I’m expecting to drop a couple hundred on glasses.
Looking back I have no idea how my mom did it. Single mom in poverty wages to two kids. Granted we weren't doing extracurriculars and she had her parents who watched us (we even lived with them for several years) and we ate there a lot. But, somehow she kept us in private schools for half our schooling (I know there were "scholarships" for at least a cpl of those), and generally I don't think we ever felt like we were missing anything.
I’m a single mom and I have no idea how *Im* doing it.
Well, you're doing great! Keep it up.
Thanks. Sometimes it’s really great to hear, and it’s been a rough day. I needed to hear that.
I had to pay $7500 cash at 20 weeks, even though I had my own BCBS coverage AND was on my husband’s policy. Then, our girl was born slightly early at 37 weeks - inhaled amniotic fluid during delivery which meant a 7 day stay in the NICU. We got a bill for $1.4 million from BCBS because the hospital apparently had ME as the NICU patient instead of our newborn daughter. Had to appeal to get them to cover it. It took months to correct an extremely simple error. Still ended up paying $10K out of pocket. The healthcare system is beyond broken.
This is so fucked. I can’t stand this
Yep. had twins born early and were in the nicu for about a month. They billed for each baby individually from birth to release. We got the bill and laughed while dying inside. Over a mil and we were making like 50k a year.
What did your friend do about that million dollar bill? Did she get it reduced? Excused or something? Or is she still carrying that bill now?
Insurance covers everything after the baby's out of pocket maximum. In 2024 that can be no more than $18,900 for a family, and can be much less depending on the plan design. If the baby is on Medicaid or has really good insurance the family may have no cost sharing whatsoever.
For us, our bill was over a million. Insurance paid a major amount but we owed about $100K, this was 36 years ago. It took us years to pay all the medical bills plus my husband stayed home to take care of her, so we were a one income family. People asked why we don’t have a house, my daughter’s my house… lol
To be honest, I don’t know. I’m assuming that insurance covered some.
lol reminds me of that adage... "If I owe the bank $1000 dollars thats my problem... If I owe the bank a million dollars thats their problem"
If you owe the bank $1000, the bank owns you. If you owe the bank a million dollars, you own the bank.
Your friend *actually owed* over a million dollars or are you just citing the funny money insurance number?
A million? I’d flee the country. That’s insane
What if you just, don’t pay?
They send it to a collection agency and it starts impacting your credit
Credit is impacted for 7 years, collection can go indefinitely, but those vultures can pound dirt as far as I'm concerned.
Premature babies automatically qualify for Medicaid though.
Check to see if she qualifies for pregnancy medicaid and then the baby medicaid. That's what happened to us. I made to much for 2 people to get medicaid but we did qualify for pregnancy medicaid and then we qualified for the kids to be on medicaid. Because of that it was about $300 total out of pocket with my insurance and medicaid.
We had insurance when my fist was born, but couldn’t afford the extra $1,000 a month to add baby to insurance after the first month, so baby and I both ended up going on Medicaid. The unexpected bonus was that Medicaid paid the $3000 or so still owing from the birth that insurance hadn’t covered.
Retroactive bills for up to 3 months for the win
This is the way.
The cost of a child unless you have good insurance will be whatever the out of pocket max is.
Even with good insurance it will still be your MOOP, it's just with good insurance your MOOP might only be $250-$500 instead of $5k-10k.
Good grief we’ve never even had the option to have an insurance max oop that low! Didn’t know they existed. The latest and greatest our plan has done is to divide out my husband and I’s deductibles so now there are two separate deductibles. If we both need major care in a year we are pretty fucked.
It'll be even more than that because the baby will get bills in their name too.
And if that $5,000 is an individual (not family deductible) then mom’s bills don’t count toward babies deductible. Now many standard things are covered before the deductible (well child visits, vaccinations) but don’t assume a perfectly healthy need free baby.
Wait, how can they bill a baby for being born?
The birth, not. But everything that happens to them once they appear earth side, yes.
They bill the baby even if it's stillborn. r/LateStageCapitalism
They even charged my baby for being resuscitated when he was born!
that’s really dark
You're lucky if it's only $5k mine was a total of $7k after insurance paid their portion
Man, I don't know how people are having baby in this economy. I can barely take care of myself, let alone a partner and a child
Something tells me why this countries birth rates are stagnating and politicians need immigration to bring in more labor. Little do the immigrants know what debt trap they’re walking into
If you live in the US and your state offers it, you may want to consider switching to a lower deductible government health care plan. Kids also get sick often and $5k a year has to be weighed against the total cost of the premium and how much you’ll use it. Don’t forget too that different minimums apply based on whether or not the doctor and hospital are “in network”.
On a related note. for having a baby, if there's even small issues, you're going to cap not just your deductible, but your maximum out of pocket. We opted for a larger deductible and a lower max out of pocket. With out first kid we totally maxxed it out and probably saved ourselves a good 8-9k that year. Second kid wasn't AS expensive but we still hit the max out of pocket pretty easily.
I opted to enroll in the high deductible plan at my job last yr bc the other plan was just so expensive I couldn't imagine paying for it and it limited coverage to only the hospital system I work in, which is very local and not available outside of my immediate area. so I chose the cheaper high deductible plan that had an extended coverage network in case God forbid I get sick or hurt on vacation or s/t. I was so stressed and just resolved not to get sick enough to need medical care this year lmao. if I die, I die y'know? well, come to find out the new medication I'm prescribed is $15,000/mo. no generic. insurance covers it but the copay is $1,800. as it turns out, though, the drug manufacturer offers a "coupon" which brings the price I pay down to $5/mo. insurance has no way of knowing--the only information they have is that the final cost is $1,800. as of today I have hit my deductible for the year and by this time next month I'll have hit my out of pocket maximum and all my healthcare will theoretically be free after that. I'm so fucking giddy, I feel like I've found the cheat code and all it took was being diagnosed with a rare disorder that only one prohibitively fucking expensive medication is approved to treat
It's worth looking into, although unfortunately they may not be eligible for ACA subsidies since they have access to employer health plan coverage
Depending on their state, they can potentially incorporate a sole member LLC and get “employer” coverage through Healthcare.gov.
America u r not ok
Yup. If they want to increase the birth rate, 5 grand birth + isn't the way.
If you think the birth is expensive, DON’T have kids. That’s like saying a puppy is expensive because it costs hundreds of dollars. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. It costs tens of thousands a year to have kids, minimum.
This. If you don’t know how you will afford them and care for them, don’t do it. Kids are expensive. I had great insurance with Amazon and still paid about $3000 for delivery, both C-section. But the child suffers the most when you can’t afford them.
Exactly. Don’t do it if you can’t afford it. Why would you want your child to suffer because of your bad decisions? I also don’t get women who just decide to have (and keep) the baby because an abortion is “too expensive”. Like, how much do you think it costs to raise a kid?! 🤦🏼♀️
Is this really a thing? People having babies because they can't afford abortion?
Yes. But also in many states it’s now essentially illegal, even very early on.
Agree with you 100%. If your financial situation is so dire that a $5k medical bill seems hopelessly out of reach, please do not get pregnant and bring a child into this world. The expenses will only increase from there. And before anyone comes after me, I have been in tough financial situations in the past myself. But I also took things seriously, and either just didn’t have sex, or took precautions so no pregnancies happened… because it would’ve been irresponsible to have a child at the time. I wish more people felt the same way.
We were on Medicaid when my kids were born and we were so lucky for that because my son ended up in the nicu on a ventilator for a week to the tune of over $250k. Luckily we didn't have to pay it but there is no way we could have planned for it if we did. Kids are expensive which is why people are not having as many now.
Yeah. My wife and I had amazing insurance and I think we payed $3,750 almost 2 years ago. Also, something I learned. Don't buy used car seats. Car seats not only expire, but you are also supposed to discard them after a wreck. Even a minor one. Since you don't know the history of one at a 2nd hand shop, the only safe option is to buy new. We spent $800 buying 2 car seats that will grow with our baby till they are completely out of them. Cheaper options out there, but that one necessity really is a big one. Oh, and budget for formula. Most parents don't plan on it, but often you do not get an option. Sometimes breastfeeding does not work, and formula is expensive.
Formula and diapers are really expensive. Thousands of dollars a year. Add in clothing and daycare it gets tough to pay for it all. Kids are not cheap.
With these expenses, there is absolutely nothing wrong with using store-brand diapers/formula, and thrifting clothes. Target (in my opinion) has the best store brand, even when my youngest needed special formula. You can find new or almost new kids clothing thrifting, because they grow so darn fast. Also, shop the clearance at the end of a season up a size for the next year. Still expensive, but if you really plan ahead, you can save a lot. Let other people buy the new stuff, then get it 2nd hand!
Do you mean like the birth only? Because raising a child costs way, waaaay more than that.
Most hospitals will have a payment plan available, and if your income is lower, they might offer financial assistance. It’s worth applying for, often the income level is higher than other programs.
To add to this, if you get a % discount it can often be applied to other bills too. For example, got a % off and anesthesiologist practice (they worked with hospital but weren’t part of the hospital so separate billing) accepted the discount too. You will need to talk to them but it could save a lot of money too.
One of my friends is still paying off her C-section for her 4 year old twins. Payment plans are a good option.
Currently pregnant and have an HSA that I've been saving money in, in order to prep for labor and delivery costs...
Same here. Me and wife making out our HSA. Love that you can use your spouse money
Just had our daughter in October. Switch to a low deductible plan in the Open Enrollment period before you intend to get pregnant. Specially add a "7-day short term disability" rider to your plan. Plan to contribute the entire deductible to a HSA the same year you intend to become pregnant. What this means is that you'll be able to collect disability as a percentage of your normal pay beginning on the 7th day after having the baby (instead of the 30th) and continuing through your 12-week FMLA allowance. Rather than just being off work and making no money, you'll actually get paid take care of the baby. Our out of pocket was zero other than incidentals like gas and diapers and stuff. We're on Michigan BCBS.
Worth noting here that most plans only offer an HSA if your plan is high deductible. You can typically do an FSA regardless. There are key differences between the two, so if you do this, read the fine print on the FSA (money often is use-it-or-lose-it, lower max contribution, etc.)
Most short term disability plans have a 12 month preexisting condition exclusion. So if you’re already pregnant, it won’t pay out. Better to sign up for it a year before you plan to get pregnant so that it will. At least you know for baby #2
Why do they make things so complicated?
So you have to pay all these ridiculous things. Also, when you get the bill, be sure to ask for an itemized copy of it!
That’s a low end. Don’t forget you’re going to have a separate bill from the hospital, the obgyn dr, if she gets numbed up then that’s the anesthesia dr, and I feel like I’m missing another bill in there… $5,000 is just your deductible but don’t forget about your copay. Is there a $0 copay when the deductible is met? Because if not that’s another 10-20% of allowable charges.
Just to birth one. It costs shit tons beyond that
Not in most parts of the world
Third world'shish here (Chile) cost $0 for c section, just pay for parking and snacks, goverment here gives a crib and a lot of things for parents. (All free) Even follow ups once the kid grows up are free, milk is also free here for the baby. (Mine is 3 and a half and we still get free milk from the goverment) All care for kids are free in the public health system here (and of excellent quality to boot) even dental is free. Cant believe how expensive the US have gotten lately, when I lived there it wasnt this bad. Good luck guys :)
At least we have free parking at my hospital in the us
Not at the hospital I was at! Once baby was in the NICU my husband was given a pass, but I was in the hospital for 2 weeks before the baby was born, and it was $21/day for him to visit me every day.
Third world country here, and even without insurance a vaginal birth in a private clinic is between 1500 and 2500 pen (like between $400 and $650), and in order to compare, our minimum wage a year is 15,500 pen. C section, around 4000 pen. It can be "expensive" but you can pay it in installments. With insurance, we paid 600 pen for a c section and 3 day stay at the clinic. Also, all pre natal appointments were free, it also included 2 somograms, but the doctor wanted us to have 2 more (just to be ultra safe) and we did have to pay for those. Oh, and all appointments for my kiddo for the first 2 years are also free.
Right? Can’t believe it whenever I see this posts, my wife and I live in Canada and have two kids. First one was briefly in the NICU, and the second was a business-hours birth. Only thing we paid for was parking and snacks…
I checked in my US hospital at 11:45 pm. The hospital charged me a full day room & board. I was livid when I got the bill.
Not if you live in a socialist country. I’m American but gave birth to my two children while living and working in France (a socialist country). All prenatal care was covered 100% as was all postnatal care, and I received 80% of my previous year’s salary because of health issues I was unable to work from the time I was three months pregnant. I had a midwife come to my house every day to check on me and never paid a penny for any cost associated with the pregnancy delivery or my child after it was born. Yeah, the taxes are higher there but guess what? They actually cover stuff like universal healthcare.
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Only if you’ve been living there for a year when the baby is born or plan to once the child is born.
Just wait until you find out how much it costs to raise a child after it’s born.
That will be the first of many multi thousand dollar expenses.
Cousin just had a kid and had complications. Bill was over 100k. With insurance, they walked away with a little under 20k but yeah...thanks private healthcare. One of the line items was "skin time" and it was $40. When they asked, it was when the baby was brought back in after it was cleaned but before it went to the nursery for the first time.
I used midwives and a birthing center, I was on medicare at the time, and it covered everything, but if it hadn't, my entire pregnancy and labor care would have only been around 3500.
That part. My birthing center is out of network unfortunately but worth the $7500 cash pay patient discount. I will file for out of network benefits when they superbill me after birth so hopefully we'll get back a little something since I have a good low-deductible plan that covers out of network benefits at 70%. I still found it to be superior to traditional OBGYN office care.
I loved my midwives, and feel like I got much better and more personalized care. The birthing center was also more like a big comfortable home than a clinic or hospital.
Typically it costs way more. The ductile you speak of is your yearly. So if delivering the baby is your only medical expense that year, yes you pay $5k. If you had other medical expenses that go towards said deductible, is that much less. I assume you're in the US. We have a pretty fun system, but people keep voting against their own interests because they think it's either this or communism lol. Most people would save money over universal healthcare but they won't listen. So, this is what we are left with. 🤷♂️
Yup. 5k is cheap! It gets way more costly as the kid grows up. It's insane. Having a kid is now a luxury.
You have a max out of pocket on your insurance
If you are worried about the delivery costs then you should really think long and hard about having a kid. The costs are only starting at delivery.
I’m 9 months pregnant and paid $5k in copays and deductibles in the first two trimesters. Nothing birth related included, just prenatal care. This is with “good” private insurance.
Idk how anyone is paying for kids. Other than "we have to". My partner and I have completely given up on the idea of having kids unless we win the lottery... which we don't play, so 😂 I have always known having kids is an expensive investment, but I never knew how expensive it'd gotten. Are kids going to be considered a luxury...? I had an older woman in my life tell me "just have kids! You'll never be ready! If I thought about if I could feed any of my kids, they wouldn't be here!" And I knew she could see my shock. That's how I lived growing up - unsure of food, for one, couldn't imagine intentionally doing that to a kid knowing my situation. It's considered so selfish rn not to have kids, but I'd feel selfish doing it knowing I, personally, can't ensure they have everything they need. Then I get to these threads and realize DAYCARE IS 3k A MONTH WHAT THE HELL It overshadowed so much of my understanding. Really. HOW do people pay this? Just really good income combined and budgeting? Even with rent increases, thats more than some pretty high rent! That could get you a 2 bedroom apartment! Whats going on 😩😂 (Editing to add that ik she comes from a different generation and why some had the mindset of just repopulate no matter the cost)
If you can’t handle a 5k expenditure, you probably aren’t ready to have a baby. Consider that if one of you or the baby gets sick you will have to pay the deductible in the another year.
Fr. 5,000 is nothing with a kid. That’s a pair of braces.
I think that if you have a need to be subscribed to this sub, you probably should not be having a baby.
Don’t have a baby if you don’t have 5k in this garbage country
Makes me appreciate the great health insurance my wife carries for the family. Our bill for child delivery was $100 deductible. If our daughter needed special care (NICU) - there would have been no additional cost. Healthcare cost in our country is insane.
You may want to see if there are midwife practices in your area. They often work under a physician practice. Most births are uncomplicated. Nurse midwives ( certified midwives, not lay midwives) have extensive experience with deliveries that are natural. My second child was with a midwife. It went smoothly and I did not have a big episiotomy. You need good insurance in case there are complications. Also, babies do not care if clothes are new or not, or toys. Just safe car seats, cribs and breast feeding safe a lot of money and worry. Parenthood is wonderful
Might want to look into better insurance
You have to watch out too because sometimes insurance just won't cover certain things or only cover a portion. For example, I had twins. After the initial discovery, I called my insurance to make sure they covered a multiple birth. They said yes, but in reality, we ended up paying a lot out of pocket. I.E.: My insurance "covered" ultrasound screenings but since there were two fetuses, I had to have extra long appointments that cost more than standard ($600/$300). There were also some complications which meant I needed ultrasounds weekly in the last trimester. My doctor didn't tell me insurance was denying the extra appointments. We ended up owing an additional $7,500 in addition to our deductible and co-pay.
You might qualify for supplemental Medicaid. My family did. We paid for normal insurance but the supplemental picked up what the main insurance didn’t. My twins were in the nicu for 2 weeks each and I had a very complicated delivery and had high level care for 3 or the 5 days I was there. We didn’t pay a cent. It was a life saver for us.
No it does not, its WAY MORE....
$5k? Don’t be ridiculous. …It’s far more than that
Jesus, america
Daycare is the Same Price as my mortgage! For my little guy. Plus another $500 a month in daycare fees for my stepson.
$5k is not even CLOSE anymore. It's so much more.
Only 5k? Dude, my deductible was 6k for myself. Then when he was born he became a whole person who also racked up bills for being born and being monitored, so he was another about 6k deductible bc my company’s family deductible is 12k Edit: bc I realized I put a 4 instead of 6. They just raised it again this year yay /s
Wait til you hear how much raising one costs
Yes, and that’s just *having* the baby.
Children are expensive to raise if you think this is a lot I would suggest doing more research before you plan to have a kid
To raise a child up to 18 is $300,000+
The cost of birth is peanuts compared to what everything else will cost. Walk me through your plan: Now you had a baby, does your wife have a good maternity plan? What if the baby needs specialty formula and allergic to regular diapers? Now daycare. Have you looked into the cost of that? Now the baby is sick who can take a day off work to take care of baby? Not saying its impossible, just majority of people dont look at any of that before having a kid. My recommendation? No debt except mortgage and student loan, 3-6 months of income in savings, then you are ready to have a kid. Because hospital bill you can finance and pay a monthly payment until its paid off and since you got no debt and savings you can float the extra cost of diapers, formula and daycare and that monthly hospital bill not to mention all the doctors visit and copays bc no one needs a doc more often than a pp woman or a newborn. Because there is nothing worse than being ridiculously sleep deprived and stressed about finances which is what will happen the first 3-6 months of a childs life if you have a kid before financially stable.
My first child cost us around $500. By my 3rd child, I was on a high deductible plan, and it cost us around that. All of the prenatal appointments contributed to the deductible and my wife had a C-section, so it was expensive. Luckily my kid was born in January so we basically paid for nothing the rest of the year and I was able to build up my HSA.
You get $2000 child tax credit for having a baby. $3000+ is a little more manageable. How do people manage to pay for a baby? I imagine the same way they manage to pay for a $40k+ vehicle. Monthly through massive interest on debt.
American parents should stage some kind of organized mass protest of some sort
We are, we aren’t having kids
I have military insurance and husband was active duty, so don't honestly remember getting a bill. I would imagine it wasn't cheap though given she was 8 weeks early and spent 49 days in NICU.