this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2025
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According to my halfassed search engine results, giving birth costs on average $18,000.
Just the cost of epidural, estimates range from $1000 to $3500 out of that cost.
As someone who lives in a country where giving birth is free that sounds absolutely insane to me. Are these birth costs in the US at least covered by common medical insurance or is it always that bad? It's a miracle that the US birth rate is one of the highest in the western world when the conditions are like this...
After my son’s birth in 2006, we owed $12,000 after insurance. That was a single night’s stay in the hospital. Nothing out of the norm for the birth. We had to refinance the house the following year to pay off his and our daughter’s birth from 2005.
I think my hospital bills were around $5,000. What I didn’t anticipate was the fact that once my daughter was born I was paying hospital bills for me and for her. I think without insurance it was around 30k? So insurance covered 25,000 and we paid the rest
Right? 🇨🇦
But I have family in Sweden, and I'm not sure they don't have a baby food fund, but I definitely remember that daycare, preschool and all schooling was free of user-fees and also nearby.
So she's been walking the kids to the schools down the road a bit for 14 years now, on her way to and from work. And it's been free. And I think they get lunch. And their schools are moderately successful and still have programmes. And they graduate kids who can add in their head and speak two languages or more.
Guys, I think rogue American states don't want to join Canada. Join Denmark or Sweden instead!
Estonian here, similar, but two languages wasn't actually an option at least earlier this century. I started my first foreign language in 3rd grade and the other one in 6th. Could've added a 3rd one in high school but didn't feel like it personally.
Daycare isn't entirely free but the fee is very small.
Hospital visits are 2.50 per night for inpatient or 5 euros a visit for outpatient I think. Without insurance most tests are still double digits, but major surgery can go into the thousands. Insurance is tied to having employment - but being in school, raising a child under 3, etc counts too. And so does registering as unemployed. Pretty much the only time you have no health insurance is if you're a NEET and don't register for unemployment.
And you can walk to places. In my hometown, we could just walk or cycle to the next town over. There's a separate light traffic road next to the car road.
Not really, all the third world countries with no real system to pay for old age have high birthrates too.
American here. I don't remember paying a dime for either of our kid's birth. Don't think we even had copays for the doctor.
I had a kid three years ago, we decided to get a higher premium health plan that specifically had excellent natal coverage. It's one of the most expensive plans available to us but we didn't pay anything for 9 months worth of prenatal visits plus 3 days in the hospital. The coverage statement said that delivery from the hospital was something like $28,000 but the first bill we actually saw that we had to pay was for a hearing test that was only partially covered.
An epidural doesn't "cost" 3000€
A whole hospital stay for a normal uncomplicated birth in Germany (5 days) with Epidural is just 3600€ (that's what the hospital gets paid, and most of them are for-profit in Germany)