You have to pay just to have a baby?!?

I just recently had a baby boy, beautiful and healthy, 1 week early due to induction as precaution. He was the "most stoned baby I (the midwife) have ever seen!" due to my missus not being examined often enough and Pethidine being administered about an hour before delivery... No bother, all that matters are mother and child are healthy.

So, with that in mind, I was thinking about some of my gripes with the NHS (aftercare was pretty terrible for my girl, unnecessary procedures, lack of consistency ie. 5 different midwifes throughout the induction and labour) and how I felt about socialised health care on the whole, in comparison to what you Americans have or what may have soon.

Full disclosure, I am very anti socialism, politically towards the right, although have made a conscientious decision to opt out of the whole debacle, so I don't vote and have never done so. In principal, I was against the idea of having state funded health care, thinking competition could only improve quality of care and would also reduce cost in the long run etc.

How naive I was....

www.bbc.co.uk...

It struck me that women in the US (and evidently many countries) must pay for the privilege of popping one out. It must seem very normal to many of you, but to me, that just seems insane. Kids cost enough to raise dammit, without a bunch of doctors sticking their heads in your sideroom to check you are OK (at a cost of $500 of course).

One woman's bill came to $100,000. I'm totally flummoxed by that...

I realise insurance can foot the bill (does it always?) but that has really opened my eyes to how lucky I am to have the NHS, I really have been taking it for granted as I have never known anything else.

For some perspective, I spend roughly £650/year in tax that directly funds the NHS.

$100,000 = £77,170.00
£77,170 / £650 = 119 years worth of payments before I would reach the cost of this reasonably normal pregnancy.

For my £650/year, I have full health coverage. I daren't even think of the cost of having treatment for cancer. That would be free here, with maybe a small fee for prescriptions?

I just don't understand how your private health care system could be so damn expensive.

But more than that, I don't understand why you would fight so hard to keep it that way, when the alternative is more money in your pockets...

a reply to: Dem0nc1eaner

CEOs have expensive tastes. Their salaries require higher premium costs.

a reply to: dfnj2015

Let us not forget the corrupt political contributions that must be paid to retain those profits & expensive tastes.

As long as we have a profit based system for insurance companies, pharmaceuticals & for-profit hospitals we are doomed.

ganjoa

I can't even comprehend how much waste there must be in US healthcare, the numbers are literally unfathomable.

Don't forget, the UK has to buy the same overpriced pharmaceuticals from the same companies that you do. So how can there be such a mismatch in cost to the end-user??

a reply to: Dem0nc1eaner

Healthcare Industry is greedy, very greedy.. congratulations on your new baby!

It should not be so expensive to have a baby. Can't a baby survive without the ultrasounds they are constantly saying the mother needs every few months? My granddaughter is pregnant now and my oldest daughter had a baby about three years ago. At minimum, just for the hospital it is twenty grand, and another ten to twelve grand for prebirth services. Those ultrasounds are a grand now, they used to be sixty bucks before. Of course you are happy, because the list price is two grand, they give you the insurance discount on the procedure.

It probably costs about thirty grand here to have a baby, if it is a premee, it can easily go to a hundred grand or more overall.

Then they want you to go in for all the shots and tests afterwards, that can be another ten grand in the first year. On top of that, they want you to go to all these baby training things and baby events and tests and home visits by different agencies, how are you supposed to go to work if you are constantly at appointments? I think people are getting crazy with making people jump through hoops just to have a baby.

originally posted by: iTruthSeeker
a reply to: Dem0nc1eaner

You don't have to pay anything.. It is free... Oh wait, are you White?

Sorry, I'm really not sure what you're getting at?

Oh yeah, congratulations on the new baby. That is the first thing I should have said.

originally posted by: rickymouse
It should not be so expensive to have a baby. Can't a baby survive without the ultrasounds they are constantly saying the mother needs every few months? My granddaughter is pregnant now and my oldest daughter had a baby about three years ago. At minimum, just for the hospital it is twenty grand, and another ten to twelve grand for prebirth services. Those ultrasounds are a grand now, they used to be sixty bucks before. Of course you are happy, because the list price is two grand, they give you the insurance discount on the procedure.

It probably costs about thirty grand here to have a baby, if it is a premee, it can easily go to a hundred grand or more overall.

Then they want you to go in for all the shots and tests afterwards, that can be another ten grand in the first year. On top of that, they want you to go to all these baby training things and baby events and tests and home visits by different agencies, how are you supposed to go to work if you are constantly at appointments? I think people are getting crazy with making people jump through hoops just to have a baby.

Wow, I hadn't even considered pre and post natal services....

originally posted by: iTruthSeeker

originally posted by: Dem0nc1eaner

originally posted by: iTruthSeeker
a reply to: Dem0nc1eaner

You don't have to pay anything.. It is free... Oh wait, are you White?

Sorry, I'm really not sure what you're getting at?

If minorities (not all) had to pay the costs of having a baby, they would not be popping them out as frequently. Get this, they get PAID to have them. Each kid adds another chunk of your money to their pockets.

How does that work? It's not like you can say, at 9 months, "you know what, I'd rather not do this anymore, little baby can just stay right where it is" (although actually, my missus did in fact say that, scream it and almost paint it in blood on the walls).

I'm assuming your doctors can't turn away people in need? So who decides who can afford to pay and who can't? How does it work with something imminent like labour or an emergency?

My job let me go because I live in a work at will state. In my last few weeks I had to go to an appt every week. My job said that wasn't working out and let me go 1 week before I gave birth. I lost my insurance, etc..... cost me 900 dollars. My gyno was with the hospital group and refused to see me until i was able to pay. Unemployed, a new born, and all savings tied up in diff. retirement accounts, I had to find a new job 3 weeks after giving birth and get right back to business. I finally paid it off, and now since I paid them their money, I'm lucky enough to be given a prescription for birth control. Which they refused to give me since I owed them money. I guess their plan was I'd get pregnant again and come back and owe them even more money if they wouldn't give me contraception pills.

It's a hassle and a half- but nothing compared to what children cost in the long run.

-Alee

One woman's bill came to $100,000. I'm totally flummoxed by that...

That's only the down payment.

18 years people.

Car/college/and the list goes on.

Geez, that's bloody ridiculous! It's no longer a thing here in Australia but I've got 2 kids (10 & 7) and when they were born the government paid us!! Was about $5000 lump sum initially and then a fortnightly payment of more than $100 if memory serves. I was the sole earner but we we're by no means short of money. Not that we lived extravagantly or anything but we we're comfortable.

originally posted by: NerdGoddess
My job let me go because I live in a work at will state. In my last few weeks I had to go to an appt every week. My job said that wasn't working out and let me go 1 week before I gave birth. I lost my insurance, etc..... cost me 900 dollars. My gyno was with the hospital group and refused to see me until i was able to pay. Unemployed, a new born, and all savings tied up in diff. retirement accounts, I had to find a new job 3 weeks after giving birth and get right back to business. I finally paid it off, and now since I paid them their money, I'm lucky enough to be given a prescription for birth control. Which they refused to give me since I owed them money. I guess their plan was I'd get pregnant again and come back and owe them even more money if they wouldn't give me contraception pills.

It's a hassle and a half- but nothing compared to what children cost in the long run.

-Alee

Pfff.... # the cost, that's just inhumane!

To think I was complaining about the NHS..... that would never happen here, it's unthinkable. Why would anyone have a baby with all that hassle???

Not sure what it's like in US, but here, women get 9 months + maternity leave. I was able to take a month off fully paid. Even with that, having a newborn is way more of a challenge than mere words can prepare you for, so I can only imagine how tough that was for you.

Congratulations on your child, it makes it all worth it doesn't it!

Well, one way to control the population is to make something so simple into something that is really expensive so nobody wants a kid.

originally posted by: ware2010
a reply to: Dem0nc1eaner

Healthcare Industry is greedy, very greedy.. congratulations on your new baby!

The greed stems from insurance underpaying the hospital bill. The hospital charges a hundred dollars for an aspirin because they know the insurance company will only cover a tenth of that.

originally posted by: TOMFROMOZ
Geez, that's bloody ridiculous! It's no longer a thing here in Australia but I've got 2 kids (10 & 7) and when they were born the government paid us!! Was about $5000 lump sum initially and then a fortnightly payment of more than $100 if memory serves. I was the sole earner but we we're by no means short of money. Not that we lived extravagantly or anything but we we're comfortable.

Yeah good point!! We still get child benefits here until they are 18, of about £200 a month I believe? Enough to cover formula and nappies.