What happened? Giving Birth in a hospital used to cost 29 Bucks!

a reply to: Edumakated

I did a thread a few weeks back where I could find online in less than 10 seconds on Amazon some replacement supplies for my CPAP machine cheaper than what insurance was being billed/charged by their agreed upon distributor.

Totally forgot, I wanted to thank you for that!!! After that thread I was able to buy some medical supplies for an elderly family member, basically getting 2x the product for 1/2 the cost!! (on Amazon)
The item was actually better made too. They were originally buying it from a hospital supply store! Total ripoff!!!!!!

originally posted by: makemap
More like What happened to giving birth at home for free, no cost and celebrate family values? Must rush to hospital for no reason.

What happened is that they scared the hell out of people.
People have been giving home births for thousands of year. The problem is with people like me.
There is 100% chance I would have died in home birth, 100%.
So even at such an inflated cost, I would always choose the hospital route.

Who pays the billed price on a medical procedure?

If the Healthcare industry and insurance industry want to play games with each others financial books let them. When you get a bill in the mail that you think is too high.... throw it out.

originally posted by: JAGStorm

originally posted by: makemap
More like What happened to giving birth at home for free, no cost and celebrate family values? Must rush to hospital for no reason.

What happened is that they scared the hell out of people.
People have been giving home births for thousands of year. The problem is with people like me.
There is 100% chance I would have died in home birth, 100%.
So even at such an inflated cost, I would always choose the hospital route.

Yup, that's the risk. My daughter and possibly my wife would have died if she gave birth at home. I think her birth cost was in excess of $100k. Water broke 2 months early, wife had to be on bed rest and then needed emergency c-section. Daughter was only 3.5lbs at birth an was in ICU for a month. So yeah, the $100k was probably worth it imho.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: JAGStorm
Because of insurance.
Same thing happened to college tuition when the government got in the loan business.
Obama should have focused on reducing medical cost instead of worrying about insurance.

you are exactly right, insurance is indeed why the price is so high. insurance has been willing to pay so much, and since they have been, they charge even more. that old business thing at work, where you charge what people are willing to pay. although it's not solely the fault of private insurance companies. socialized medical systems have their fault in this as well. since they have largely done the same as insurance companies, and instead of saying NO to rising costs associated with health care have also let the prices increase at an insane level. and thus the medical industry could always point at the prices of things in places like Canada and can say that it's obviously a fair price, since they are paying almost as much.

and isn't it interesting that i have only heard one politician in the entire world, make comments that the PRICES of medical care need to be dealt with. and that was Trump (you know the supposedly "bad orange man", out to destroy people's lives), in his State of the Union Address not too long ago. and this is what Obama should have done instead of his failed Obamacare ponzi scheme. it is actually criminal that medical supply and equipment companies as well as the pharmaceutical industry have been allowed to fleece the "rich nations". and you can not say that they are not fleecing everyone when you can buy the EXACT same name brand medicines, equipment, and supplies so much cheaper in many countries, compared to what is charged in countries like the US and Canada. medicines that cost a couple hundred dollars in the US can be purchased in other countries for under twenty dollars. and it is the exact same medicine, name brand and all. i actually wonder how much the just under THREE MILLION DOLLARS per year medication, that a relative has to take for the rest of their life (payed for completely with tax dollars) would cost outside of the US?

originally posted by: Edumakated
Health insurance is the main culprit.
I think the insurance companies and medical providers are in cahoots. I did a thread a few weeks back where I could find online in less than 10 seconds on Amazon some replacement supplies for my CPAP machine cheaper than what insurance was being billed/charged by their agreed upon distributor.
It would be far cheaper for me to buy the supplies on my own.

they are definitely in cahoots. you even find the same thing with car insurance. the prices the insurance companies pay for parts tends to be much higher than you can but the same parts yourself. seriously i had a truck written off after a break in. and what pushed the cost so high that they wrote it off was not the broken window and door they tried to pry open that did it. that was within the value of the vehicle. what sent it over the top was things like the ASHTRAY that was broken. and that ashtray was going to cost $500 (yes FIVE HUNDRED), and a few other what should have been minor expenses. (and of course they just could not, not replace the ashtray, for which i actually had a spare at home, which i had bought for another truck brand new for about $30).

a reply to: JAGStorm

I don't remember how much my deliveries cost. I had really good insurance with my first two, so I really didn't pay much although insurance didn't cover the second sonogram, so I paid that out of pocket. With my youngest, I was in Canada and using healthcare up here. I didn't pay anything that I recall.

I worked at the lab in the hospital where I delivered and I can tell you for sure that the markup on services was ridiculous. The amount they changed for a single square of gauze was beyond stupid.

a reply to: JAGStorm

its called inflation

originally posted by: richapau
a reply to: JAGStorm

its called inflation

hyperinflation.

With regular inflation the price would be as I listed in my OP around 600 bucks.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
Where did we go astray?
You read that right, in 1943 it cost less than 30 dollars to deliver a baby in the hospital.
If you add in inflation, we are still talking less than 600 dollars.

In todays reality I think that amount is
now anywhere from 30K to 200K and more.
We are the MOST expensive nation in the world to deliver a baby.
When I last delivered the full cost was over 80K.
At the rate we are going, there will only be two groups having babies in the future. The super rich, and the super poor.

If you read the line items I think it says a lot.
For example, the cost of drugs back then were only a dollar.

Back in the good old days when they just listed "drugs" on the form. And by the way here's some opium if your baby won't stop crying. For the baby, of course.

Is there anything that happens in or near a hospital that doesn't cost more than it should?

Well, the cost of giving birth isn't really intended to discourage people from giving birth (but it should be). It's just that everything medical is expensive. It's going to have to get a lot more expensive to slow down the population explosion even slightly.

You know how kids love to find something that makes a loud, obnoxious noise and they keep doing it just because they can and they love to make obnoxious things happen? That's kind of how giving birth works.

Iknow what happened. These young kids got lazy and got degrees in gender studies.

Our country is run by a bunch of morons

originally posted by: toysforadults
Our country is run by a bunch of morons

Perhaps (debatable as to whether they're really morons or just putting on a good show for bread and circuses purposes). Our country is populated by a bunch of flippin morons. That's the real problem right there. Somewhere along the way, someone injected a big honkin dose of stupid into our national DNA and we've never recovered.

Not that most other countries have any advantages whatsoever in this regard. I think Brits and Australians (on average) are some of the dumbest MFers alive. Next to Americans.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Private Midwives Unite !

originally posted by: makemap
More like What happened to giving birth at home for free, no cost and celebrate family values? Must rush to hospital for no reason.

True. Not sure what the going rate is now, but in the 90s a midwife charged less than $1000 for the whole pregnancy here.

originally posted by: JAGStorm

originally posted by: makemap
More like What happened to giving birth at home for free, no cost and celebrate family values? Must rush to hospital for no reason.

What happened is that they scared the hell out of people.
People have been giving home births for thousands of year. The problem is with people like me.
There is 100% chance I would have died in home birth, 100%.
So even at such an inflated cost, I would always choose the hospital route.

Right. They always point to the scariest scenarios when talking about childbirth, but with pregnancies that aren't high-risk, home birth with a midwife is statistically safer than a hospital birth for both mom and baby.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Where did we go astray? - easy when we started to pay in the first place.

Once the public became accustomed to paying with just a small amount to start with, they just slowly up'd the price until we have what we have today. A built in expectation that we are going to pay and dearly and so we do.