How much does childbirth cost?

Last updated on: March 11, 2017 at 6:33 pm by Jane the Actuary

How much does childbirth cost? 2017-03-11T18:33:24-06:00 Jane the Actuary

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

from flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidswiftphotography/2200020857; Creative Commons 2.0

Just a quick link here: NPR published an article, “I’m Pregnant. What Would Happen If I Couldn’t Afford Health Care?” that claimed that

All told, my prenatal care with all visits and tests included would be over $10,000. This is not counting labor and delivery, which in my area is estimated to be up to $30,000 for a vaginal birth and $50,000 for a cesarean section.

Is this legit? My understanding had always been that childbirth costs ran about $10,000 or thereabouts. Many years ago, when I was pregnant with my now-9 year old, I used to follow the discussion boards on sites such as babycenter.com, and remember threads on costs of childbirth not being unusual, particularly for women who had individual insurance that didn’t cover maternity, so they needed to manage the costs themselves through careful budgeting, planning, and arranging. There’s no way this would be possible with a $30,000 / $50,000 rate.

So I googled a bit and found a summary of childbirth costs at cnbc.com; the average is indeed less than that, at $8,775 for a vaginal birth and $11,525 for a c-section. This takes into account the amount that the employer/insurer pays and the amount that an individual pays out-of-pocket, so the numbers wouldn’t be directly applicable to an uninsured patient (though perhaps an individual insurance policy without maternity coverage still included the negotiated discounts, and it’s my understanding that it is possible to negotiate bills down if you are fully-uninsured). These numbers are still high, but they put it in the range of possibility that one could imagine paying for this, in the same way as you’d pay for other large expenses. After all, it’s still less than a year’s worth of daycare.

But here’s the other thing that this CNBC report revealed: the differentials across the country are astounding. For a vaginal birth, of the nation’s 30 largest metro areas, Kansas City came in the lowest at about $6,000; Sacramento and San Francisco both were $15,000. And even within a given metro area, prices varied considerably by provider:

[Study producer] Castlight Health’s home city of San Francisco had the highest observed price for a routine vaginal delivery, a whopping $28,541.

Another city in California, San Diego, had the lowest observed price for a routine delivery — just $3,243.

and

The disparities were even bigger when Castlight looked at the costs of c-sections.

Los Angeles had the top price observed for c-sections: $42,530.

The lowest price for a c-section was seen in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where it cost $4,419 — nearly 10 times less than L.A.

For average prices for c-sections, Sacramento again had the most expensive average price, at $27,067. San Francisco again held second place, with an average of $21,799.

Orlando, Florida, had an average c-section price of $12,232, putting it in the middle of the pack for the cities examined.

The lowest average price was in Pittsburgh, at $6,891 — which was four times less than Sacramento’s average.

These price variations are only partly due to differences in cost of living in these areas. Even within a metro area, there’s a lot of variation:

Castlight’s report said that the “shockingly higher” average prices in cities such as Sacramento and San Francisco are related to the consolidation of health providers in those places, resulting in less competition for patients.
But San Francisco also was one of the cities which has a very wide range of prices for deliveries.

Castlight said the lowest cost seen for a c-section delivery in San Francisco was $8,399, which was five times less than the highest cost seen in the city, $41,191.

In Los Angeles, the lowest cost for a c-section, at $6,232, was nearly seven times less than the highest cost c-section, at $42,530.

So I don’t know in what world the NPR author can say that childbirth costs $30,000, especially since, at least in a metro area and other than emergencies, there are options to plan (though I also recall reading moms-to-be struggling to get hospitals to give out costs in advance). Perhaps the $30,000/$50,000 is a cost that assumes an uninsured patient with every possible potential expense at the most expensive hospital?

But it is a useful reminder that this huge variation in cost across regions points to a need to figure out how to get costs down, rather than just figure out who’s going to pay for them. (It seems to me that I read a book about this, but I’m not sure when — in any case, Overtreated is a similar book on healthcare costs. I wrote about this quite some time ago, though, I’ll warn you, it looks like my planned “part 2” never happened.)

Image: from flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidswiftphotography/2200020857; Creative Commons 2.0

Uncategorized

healthcare

healthcare costs

Previous Post

March 11, 2017

5 reasons I'm suspicious of climate change crusaders

Next Post

March 12, 2017 "Climate Change is Real" (guest post)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Actuarial/Retirement Issues Politics Uncategorized

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 December 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 August 2021 June 2021 April 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Job Solomon David Isaiah