Couple Shares a Breakdown of Their C-Section Bill Before Insurance

You know that, even with insurance, having a baby in the United States is expensive. But why is it so expensive? What specific services is all your money going towards? One new parent took to Reddit to answer that question, sharing a breakdown of a c-section bill before insurance kicked in.

The grand total? $41,158.50. But the surgery itself was only $5,144. So how did this family rack up $36,000 more? Lots and lots of fees.

Drugs cost $8,698.50. Yet there’s another $3,478 charge labeled ‘pharmacy.’ Blood and lab work totaled over $4,000 on its own. And multiple rooms came with multiple charges. Recovery room: $2,706. Labor room: $5,831. Operating room: $4,957.

Image: TheOnlyToast via Reddit

TheOnlyToast, the Reddit user who shared the bill, doesn’t appear upset about the charges—just interested in the data.

“Ultimately my insurance company will cover the vast majority of this. I expect to pay around $3-5000,” they write. “This is all billed at once to the insurance company, from the hospital. Then, once they do some backdoor negotiations, they agree on a final price (I guess) and give me a significantly smaller portion to pay (most likely just my insurance deductible).”

Wondering how this compares to the average cost of a c-section? You might have to keep wondering. A 2016 study by Castlight Health showed just how much the cost fluctuates by city. It’s pricier on the west coast, with Sacramento leading the way at $27,067, and San Francisco and Portland close behind. However, the average c-section cost in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is $6,891—four times less expensive than a cesarean in California’s capital.

Castlight also found that within a given city, prices vary for the same procedure. In Los Angeles, the cost disparity for c-sections ranged from $6,232 to $42,530.

Reddit users from around the country commented with their own financial experiences.

“I live in northeast Texas and when my wife and I had our daughter in September of 2014, she had to have a c-section as well, after a whole day and night of pushing,” says user thepumpkinklng. “I remember seeing the breakdown of the bills when I got it from the hospital and insurance. We don’t live in a big city so our bill was a touch over $20,000. Ultimately, we ended up paying about $3,000 after meeting our nearly $8,000 deductible, so I guess it was more than $20,000 prior to all that. It took time and payments and in about September of last year I paid her off. We now own our daughter outright.”

“My daughter was born five months ago in Michigan. $6,000 out of pocket AFTER insurance,” says user goblue142. “No complications, natural birth, one night stay in the hospital.”

“Just had my daughter on Friday. $1,600 up front plus the $300 my wife had been paying the ob-gyn per month for the nine months to cover it, and another $400 reservation payment,” comments user schmak01. “Our daughter never left our room. It is the hospital policy, as it is a mother-preferred or something like that hospital. If they charge us separate room and board for her they will get a fight, cause that would be absurd.”

“My son was an emergency c-section 5 years ago. I’m not sure I’d even be able to put together something like this,” comments user freecascadia. “Billing and insurance was so incredibly confusing. We received bills for months after the birth from different providers and multiple times got checks in the mail from providers that apparently were overpaid. We got all kinds of different answers from insurance about what we owed vs what they would pay, etc. I feel immense sympathy for people with chronic conditions that have to navigate this maze. It’s a huge stressor heaped upon people at the time where they are least able to handle it. Its a cruel system.”

And then there’s the comments from international users, who are baffled by the cost of giving birth in the US. Norway? $5. Sweden? $12. The UK? A $41 parking fee—which the father negotiated to $0.

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