San Jose, Calif. – At the beginning of the 20th century, having a baby was dangerous but not all that expensive: Women simply hired a midwife for a couple of dollars and prayed they wouldn’t die on the kitchen table.
Today, the average cost of giving birth is about $8,800 higher, according to a new study released Tuesday by the March of Dimes. Nationally, a vaginal delivery cost $7,737, with C-sections averaging about $11,000.
Giving birth costs the most in the Northeast, mostly because of the higher cost of living. Western states are the next most expensive; it’s cheapest to give birth in the South.
Researchers examined insurance claims in 2004 for more than 43,000 deliveries, including prenatal care, delivery and newborn health care for three months after birth. The women studied had traditional employer-provided health insurance rather than HMO insurance and were not covered by government programs such as Medicaid.
It’s important to study childbirth costs because pregnancy and childbirth account for nearly a quarter of all hospitalizations in the U.S., the researchers say, with families, insurers and government sharing the costs.
The researchers found that insurers covered most of the cost of childbirth, with the women paying an average of $463 out of pocket for vaginal deliveries and slightly more for C-sections. Many consumers, however, report that their out-of-pocket costs are higher, depending on the care they receive and type of insurance they have.
When Colette Niazmand, a 30-year-old marketing manager from San Jose, Calif., planned for her child’s birth, she estimated she would pay about $5,000 to $10,000 out of pocket if she used the preferred provider plan offered by her employer. Instead, she chose to be covered under her schoolteacher husband’s generous HMO, which essentially covered all prenatal care and childbirth costs.
“We were very lucky,” said Niazmand, whose daughter is now 3 months old. “We were prepared to have to pay some portion of it.”
The study’s findings point to the need for affordable health insurance for families contemplating having a child, said Dr. Jennifer Howse, president of the March of Dimes.
“Having a baby is the most costly health event families are likely to experience during their childbearing years,” she said. “An uninsured healthy pregnancy can be a financial strain on young families, and a catastrophe in the case of a high-risk birth.”
The costs can spiral even further if a baby is born prematurely: In another study conducted using data from 2001, the researchers found that a year’s worth of health care for a premature baby averages $41,610, compared with $2,830 for a healthy, full-term infant.
Another study, also released Tuesday, found that families typically pay much more out of pocket for maternity care under the new high-deductible health- insurance plans paired with health savings accounts.
The study by Georgetown University and the Kaiser Family Foundation found that those enrolled in a traditional employee health plan (with a $500 annual deductible and $20 copayments for office visits) would likely pay $1,455 out of pocket for care during an uncomplicated pregnancy and delivery. That compared with $3,000 for families in a high-deductible plan for federal employees, and $7,000 for a high-deductible plan offered through small businesses.
About 2.7 million Americans are enrolled in those types of plans, according to the study.
In addition, routine prenatal care often is not covered as preventive care in high-deductible plans, the study found.
“If you are contemplating having a baby or having any kind of big health event, this is not the policy for you,” said co-author Karen Pollitz, project director of Georgetown’s Health Policy Institute. “It leaves people thinking they have protection when they don’t.”
Childbirth costs also are financed in part by taxpayers: Medicaid finances about 40 percent of deliveries in the United States, according to the study.
And if the cost of childbirth doesn’t make you blanch, consider the current price tag for raising a little bundle of joy until age 17: $197,700 for food, shelter and other necessities, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The Washington Post contributed to this report.
