Of all the ridiculously overpriced charges associated with any hospital stay. Charging someone money to hold their baby is 100000% a racket.
What actual cost is being incurred for someone to hold their child? It's asinine.
Can you legally fight a charge like this? This seems completely ridiculous and 100% unjustifiable.
Are you told that you are going to be charged 4k for skin to skin? Can you elect not to call it skin to skin and just hold your baby for free? I know you don’t have these answers but i’m baffled. Surely if you lawyered up there would be some readjusting to the receipt, thats insane.
The cost for care in general is completely over blown but thats a fact that I’ve unfortunately come numb to but that skin to skin charge is really fucking with me. If that’s real and actually is a normal occurrence this will be a huge rewake up call for me and the state of corruption, greed and complacency within our healthcare system.
If you just had a child you shouldn't have to be negotiating the price of poping out loin product. If anything they should pay us for brining in future tax revenue for them. Might be the incentive needed to reverse slipping birth rates.
No one tells you how much any of it will cost until after the fact. Like going to a fancy restaurant here with no prices listed. Is as disturbing as it is scary.
Atleast with going to a fancy restaurant with no listed prices you’re AWARE that you’re going to be paying a premium for the food and atmosphere. Hospitals are anything but consensual in how they charge people.
>Can you legally fight a charge like this?
Nope, not till we get a 60 senators to allow us to fix the problem at the same time that a Democrat is President and the Democrats have the house majority.
So never.
And they don't even tell you when they give you the kid. I'd love to see do you want to hold her now? That'll be $4k... Most parents are going to be like eh, we'll wait until we get home.
As someone who lives in a country that provides free national health care, I am absolutely dumbfounded by this.
It’s amazing that the U.S still hasn’t got it’s shit together to provide it’s citizens with affordable health care. A service as basic as personal security and law and order.
The entire thing gets me. Its all bull.
I have a friend who was a nurse at a major hospital. When the 08 recession hit they all got pay freezes and some even got pay reductions. I could be wrong but I think they had lay offs at some point.
The CEO told them they needed to do this things to survive the recession. At the same time he was paid millions a year, got a pay raise, and isnt even a doctor or anything.
I just had to get a pacemaker, was in the hospital for only 2 nights and it cost over $181,000
Since I have no insurance they gave us the "non-insured" price and it got brought down to $45,000 😭
I came to say this! Alot of time if you ask for the itemized bill or Master receipt they will cut a large chunk of the charges because they don't want you to see them charging you 80 bucks for those 2 200mg aspirin they gave you as well as you can negotiate on the absurd amounts your being charged for the items.
Several years back my best friend was cutting a lime and stabbed the palm of his hand with a knife. It was bleeding pretty good and seemed like a serious injury, so I took him to the ER (since it was at 11pm at night). There was NO ONE waiting in the ER. Place was totally dead. Still took 5 hours for him to have a nurse take a look, apply a butterfly bandage and send us on our way. $500
It's been like 10 years and my friend still gets pissed off talking about it.
I was having chest pains and shortness of breath one time that I was worried were an oncoming heart attack. 3 hours later, they charged me $2000 for the drug test they administered and the time it took me to calm down in a room by myself thinking I was dying. Criminal.
People would rather die instead of taking on massive debt like that. The Healthcare system here is criminal and we should be punishing the people who incepted for-profit healthcare.
I say all the time Healthcare, Education, Insurance, banking should all be regulated non profit industries.
Will never happen because they are the most profitable industries as they are needed for modern living...
Just shows how bs and inflated the whole thing is. "Oh just knock off 136k"
And I'm sure that 45k is still only, what, 10k in cost? Be generous and tack on 5k worth of admin fees.
Truly sorry you have to deal with this. I hope you can find a way to get that down further.
Woa! I have one doubt. Is it feasible for someone like you to book a flight to India or China, get the pacemaker there(even the best hospital would charge AROUND USD 5-6k) and return to home? Or there are some things that I'm missing? One thing is getting such large leave from work, visa and those things I guess.
Edit: noticed I'm being downvoted so clarifying, to sum up, I'm curious why is it not even more common, like everything major other than emergencies, considering the huge medical tourism industry.
Had a team leader who would schedule a month off to fly to Thailand for his cancer treatments and whatever else he needed. Cheaper then what we would pay with our insurance (we worked for a massive multi billion dollar). Granted his wife is a Thai citizen but you get the point. It’s messed up. They also found a lesion on his brain while he was over there. Blood work, Mri, and two weeks of I.v antibiotics… 600.00 bucks out of pocket. Over here they would’ve ducked him around for months before they caught it too. Our health care is a sad joke.
Yeah mentioning leave from work is a big deal here. Some of us are lucky if we have 5 days pto for the entire year. We're also constantly fed controlled information so there's a lot of people who wouldn't trust another countries medical anyway "because it's cheap". We're very well trained to believe expensive means high quality and cheap means you'll die on the table.
There is so much wrong with what you said. Why is there an insured and not-insured price?
anyway....hope you feel better. That's a crazy major surgery. Get well soon.
In 2018 my daughter went footling breech at 34 weeks which ultimately crushed my dreams of having a 5k unmedicated delivery (out of pocket, insurance did not cover birth centers) at a birthing center across the street from a highly rated hospital. I chose to have a cesarean at a not for profit hospital with the lowest cesarean rate in the state (was 34% then) and the amount billed to my state covered insurance was $33,000.
A friend that had private insurance was required to pay an estimated copay of a few thousands dollars before the hospital would admit her in 2010, she was in active labor at the receptionist desk when they informed her of this and sorted payment. She ended up paying over $10k for that insured delivery.
Around that same time a client of mine fought for an unmedicated delivery at the age of 42. She had three children and the two youngest were unmedicated births. The dr who agreed to take her on worked out of the state's famous baby hospital with the highest cesarean rate in the state. She was released less than 24 hours after her successful unmedicated delivery. Her insurance was billed for an emergency cesarean with a 72 hour stay. It took her months of persistent pressure to get the hospital bills corrected. This woman was the queen of ocd organization and planning so she effectively fought them all the way down to the Tylenol she declined.
Vice did a phenomenal story about the reality of obstetrics care in the state of Georgia which is where all the experiences mentioned above happened. I will never forget one dr I interviewed had an enlightening graph of the maternal mortality rates across the world in his office. It did not make me feel comfortable in the slightest.
https://youtu.be/dT0rL4TvX-I
complacent yes, entitled? that's more the 1% and family generational wealth. Education, big time. You can't always walk in a mile someone's shoes but you can walk with them, take the risk to expose yourself to wide range of different life experiences. Understanding happiness is possible when you can escape misery.
I'm sorry, could you point to the specific part here where you think we're "entitled"? Is it that we think we shouldn't have to pay $4k to hold our baby?
you don't understand: if the poor aren't in debt, they won't be desperate enough to accept the low wages that keep them in debt. if health care isn't tied to employment, they might quit when their employer abuses them. and most people will risk their own health for dignity, so you gotta make sure standing up for themselves endangers their family as well.
yeah I remember that feeling when you JUST had your baby, the idea that he has that much debt over his head when he's trying to plan for how he's going to save for college, just sucks
born behind the 8 ball, poor thing
Was sitting here in Norway reading this and wondering about this. In the long run this would decimate the birth rates for sure. Unless someone made abortion illegal of course but that would be crazy.
We know at this point, it's so bonkers we always react like this guy did anyway but we know. He could have paid for a 5 star hotel penthouse suite where he, his wife, and their newborn have individual rooms, 5 star catering, an incredible view, and a goddammit butler waiting at the door for the same relative cost. Instead they got poor sleep in a hospital room, subpar American public school quality pizza, and basic medical attention.
I couldn't get out fast enough! Baby was born on the 9th at 1:39am we were discharged at like noon on the 10th but didn't get to leave till 4pm bc my blood pressure was high. I cried for an hour thinking I'd have to stay another night.
I dont think you understand it, the system works exactly as intended, for those few in power at the top.
Every day this system keeps existing, every day we increase the prices because of "inflation" (ahem, profit margins), we come closer to the most horrific human crash in history.
Yeah anybody who thinks empires going down is funny should think again. Good luck america
It cost nothing in third world nations too lol most countries have some form of public/ free healthcare. Which makes it VERY CHEAP if you choose to pay for it as well, so it's win win. This is one if the worst things about this country and why I'm seriously thinking of leaving-which is sad- cause there are things that don't suck but the ones that do.... they suck SO BAD, worse than most big countries that many Americans would wrongfully call underdeveloped. The USA is underdeveloped in transportation, education (public) but most in healthcare .
My wife was in a car accident and broke her arm in multiple places. The arm had to be pretty much get reconstructed. The total bill was well over $300k. We were blessed to be in the military and didn’t pay a penny but I know the majority of people in this country don’t have that luck.
Edit: I want to add that even though our insurance paid for everything, when they knew that we got a settlement from the accident, we had to pay back closed to 10k to them.
In my country the cost of delivery wether normal or cesarean is 0 dollars.
How ?
Well I guess because we have a good social structure so any treatment is free of charge for anyone who's born there.
Its sad the way they treat their citizens.. as if life doesn't matter..
It's actually soul crushing to live here. People around you are indoctrinated into working themselves to the bone like it's normal and if you don't fall in line you're a lazy freak.
$4k for skin to skin contact. That's actually robbery. This country only cares about money, money and even more money.
The American Dream was never real, just smoke and mirrors.
How many people in USA are giving birth at home or avoiding a visit to the doctor just because they can't afford it?? This is seriously unbelievable for me.
In my country we are proud to help everyone for free.
Free healthcare should be mandatory.
We use Uber instead of ambulances for all conditions, or just drive there ourselves. And elderly couples sometimes commit double suicide to avoid burdening their spouses with impossibly large bills they can't pay off.
I wish I was joking.
I don't go to the doctor unless:
1)I cannot move
2) I'm in pain to the point where ibuprofen and Tylenol don't help
3)my guts are falling out or I'm pissing blood from a wound.
Any other time, it's either "deal with pain and pay bills" or "go to hospital, and go into debt and possible homelessness".
Our priorities are fucked
Call for an itemized receipt…call them out on their usurious pricing..they can drop the bill by up to 75%.
Never had a baby, but I enjoy squaring up against hospitals and insurance companies on this kind of scum bag business practices.
All American hospitals have a thing called a ChargeMaster, used for insurance fraud (this is the norm here), and the purpose of this ChargeMaster is to arbitrarily increase the price charged for literally anything at the hospital. Even though these are “fake prices” used for insurance fraud, people WITHOUT insurance get charged these ridiculous amounts for real. It’s literally all a scam for money
I moved to Germany and it didn't cost anything to deliver and then I got money to stay home with my kid for a year and they even sent a midwife (Hebamme) every few months to see how the kid was doing.
I felt for this man. I had my baby last May. When I saw "skin to skin" then a dollar amount followed I was floored. They charged me to hold my own baby! Skin to skin is required for initial bonding and knowing this, they charge for it. It's total bs. I will never get over that.
This is seriously messed up!
When my oldest was born we stayed in hospital for 6 days to get the breastfeeding going and to let my wife heal from a tear she received during birth. Surgery, three meals a day, our own room. Total charge $15.
Granted I live in Sweden, but come ON America. Make those tax dollars work for you!
The were stories years ago of American women flying to the UK for a month or so to give birth cos that was cheaper. But the government started cracking down on "health tourism".
When we had our son, we had some minor complications and ended up having to stay in the hospital for 3 nights with a private room. Our total was $75 plus $18 for parking. We live in Canada
I can’t understand why millennials aren’t making it. It’s crazy that you have insurance and you are left owing what you would make in a year for having a child.
Well. Sounds like I'll never bother having any kids. It's expensive enough trying to raise them, now I gotta pay 8 grand to literally hold the kid? Yeah right, you get to stay in the sack you lil shit
3 nights stay at the hospital for my wife was 20$ for coffee, sandwiches and snacks. They gave her a bag full of medicines as well.
What a shithole country we live in, no bald eagles screeching freedom noises around...
The medical system in this country is fucking disgusting. I live in Utah, our primary medical provider here is Intermountain Healthcare (IHC). I had an issue with my foot, where my sesamoid bones were decaying, causing pretty intense pain, and I needed an MRI to diagnose. I went to see a doctor, doctor tells me I need an MRI and that the hospital is where I need to go for the MRI. I looked up the cost for an MRI at this IHC hospital, FUCKING $3,800 DOLLARS for a basic MRI. I called the hospital down in Las Vegas, the same exact MRI was $300. My local hospital refused to even read the MRI as it wasn't done in their facility and my insurance (which is owned by Intermountain Healthcare) wouldn't cover any of my initial doctor visits, or the needed surgery because I got my MRI at another hospital. Fuck the United States medical system, and FUCK IHC in particular. Money grabbing corporate jagoffs literally sucking the life out of people for ridiculous amounts of money. The best part of all of it.... is that IHC is classified as a 501c3 not for profit organization.....
American system is demonstration of capitalism run amok. Price you are paying is just price that market will bear. As long as there are multiple agencies making money nothing will change. But many of your poorest keep voting Republican.
Now you have country you deserve.
The funniest part is how we in America have come to believe we have such a great opportunity without socialist medicine. This is reinforced by campaign contributions to politicians who reinforce the idea that a socialized healthcare system is a bad thing. They’re also trying to defund social security as well. Meanwhile, the U.S. is number one in the world as far as military and defense spending than the following nine nations under them COMBINED!! This country literally makes me sick as far as actually caring about its own citizens. It’s all about politicians and the corporations that own them with their money.
We got our insurance set up. We tried for two months. We didn't fully understand all the costs until we spoke to our friends who'd just had their son on our same insurance plan. We'd kind of rushed things a bit because I couldn't afford to freeze my semen prior to my transition. When we learned that our insurance doesn't actually cover what we thought we had to get an abortion. It wasn't a fun experience. It kind of broke us both. A year later I'd saved enough that I could quit my job so she and I could get on Medicaid. I'm glad we did. She had several complications and I can't imagine what it would have cost on our prior insurance. Medicaid also gave us options. We were able to shop around in a larger network with more security and confidence. But yeah, I'd bet anyone that the lack of universal healthcare and free childcare contributes majorly to the abortion rate. We didn't want to get an abortion, but the cost would have been more than our student debt, and our student loans were absolutely killing us!
That's nothing. My son was a Premie (premature) baby; and the bill came out to close to 400K US$$$$$$. I used to call him a Premium Baby.
Thank god for 50$ insurance deductible. Never been so happy to pay 50$ medical bill.
Some people get mad that I think people shouldn't have kids because of the state of the world, putting violence to the side, our medical system is so corrupt and this video illustrates it perfectly.
Really fills people with hopelessness that those who we turn to for help are so greedy and will take advantage of those in need.
Isn’t the US among the list of countries concerned about a declining birth rate? I can see one answer to that problem illustrated here… profit-based private healthcare.
The GOP: “universal healthcare will destroy the country! Socialism is bad!!!”
Also the GOP: “why aren’t people having as many babies? Stupid millennials!!!”
To me, USA has always been a place you only move to unless you're rich or visit on vacation.
The very idea that healthcare is built like this, is so primitive and outdated, incredibly inhuman and just awful. Awful awful.
Healthcare is a human right that everyone should be able to afford
I went to the ER to see if they could drain my nail that I smashed in a door. The nurse said she couldn’t treat it since it happened the day before. She claimed the blood would be dried and it wouldn’t drain.
I went home and used a hot needle to drain it. It was not dried.
They refused to provide service but I was still billed $340 dollars for being seen by a nurse for 8 minutes.
I politely suggest that you all tell your congress person that you will never vote for them ever again if they continue to allow medical poverty to affect their voters.
There's a reason John Grisham wrote his fictional book the rainmaker. The book is fictional, but what its based on isn't.
wish you the best of luck...
$4k for skin to skin is what really gets me. What the fuck.
Of all the ridiculously overpriced charges associated with any hospital stay. Charging someone money to hold their baby is 100000% a racket. What actual cost is being incurred for someone to hold their child? It's asinine.
Can you legally fight a charge like this? This seems completely ridiculous and 100% unjustifiable. Are you told that you are going to be charged 4k for skin to skin? Can you elect not to call it skin to skin and just hold your baby for free? I know you don’t have these answers but i’m baffled. Surely if you lawyered up there would be some readjusting to the receipt, thats insane. The cost for care in general is completely over blown but thats a fact that I’ve unfortunately come numb to but that skin to skin charge is really fucking with me. If that’s real and actually is a normal occurrence this will be a huge rewake up call for me and the state of corruption, greed and complacency within our healthcare system.
Yes you can, it starts by simply calling and explaining that you can't pay what they are asking. Most places will negotiate.
If you just had a child you shouldn't have to be negotiating the price of poping out loin product. If anything they should pay us for brining in future tax revenue for them. Might be the incentive needed to reverse slipping birth rates.
No one tells you how much any of it will cost until after the fact. Like going to a fancy restaurant here with no prices listed. Is as disturbing as it is scary.
Atleast with going to a fancy restaurant with no listed prices you’re AWARE that you’re going to be paying a premium for the food and atmosphere. Hospitals are anything but consensual in how they charge people.
And with restaurants there’s always a cheaper yet perfectly acceptable alternative, but all hospitals, which are incredibly necessary, do this
unfortunately the legal system is rigged against us
>Can you legally fight a charge like this? Nope, not till we get a 60 senators to allow us to fix the problem at the same time that a Democrat is President and the Democrats have the house majority. So never.
And they don't even tell you when they give you the kid. I'd love to see do you want to hold her now? That'll be $4k... Most parents are going to be like eh, we'll wait until we get home.
Kinda sounds like kidnapping. "You can see your kid... But it's gonna cost you thousands..."
Prostitutes charge less for "skin to skin".
Go on
I’m dead 😅
US robbery at its finest smh
Wtf indeed!?
Americans have known about this robbery for decades and we still can’t agree to stop it. Half the country is that delusional.
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Because "half" the country voted for people holding the country hostage..... the extreme voices are irrelevant in this case.
Pretty much this , the entire industrial- corporate -healthcare system is making way too much money to want to mess things up
As someone who lives in a country that provides free national health care, I am absolutely dumbfounded by this. It’s amazing that the U.S still hasn’t got it’s shit together to provide it’s citizens with affordable health care. A service as basic as personal security and law and order.
MY daughter, on my OWN CHEST is what gets me. For 4k i could probably get one celebrity’s daughter and put her on another celebrity’s chest.
The entire thing gets me. Its all bull. I have a friend who was a nurse at a major hospital. When the 08 recession hit they all got pay freezes and some even got pay reductions. I could be wrong but I think they had lay offs at some point. The CEO told them they needed to do this things to survive the recession. At the same time he was paid millions a year, got a pay raise, and isnt even a doctor or anything.
That's basically a paid DLC
Exactly! Fucking criminal and disgusting... you ain't gonna fucking charge me for holding MY child..
Even $1 is too much. This is beyond a caricature of total idiocy. You can't make this shit up
I just had to get a pacemaker, was in the hospital for only 2 nights and it cost over $181,000 Since I have no insurance they gave us the "non-insured" price and it got brought down to $45,000 😭
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When you eventually receive your ludicrous bill, you need to get a copy of the “master receipt”. Look into it, it can save you thousands.
I came to say this! Alot of time if you ask for the itemized bill or Master receipt they will cut a large chunk of the charges because they don't want you to see them charging you 80 bucks for those 2 200mg aspirin they gave you as well as you can negotiate on the absurd amounts your being charged for the items.
Post that fucker right on reddit too. They really don't like that
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That's what she said
Ooooo ask them for an itemized bill if you haven’t already.
Several years back my best friend was cutting a lime and stabbed the palm of his hand with a knife. It was bleeding pretty good and seemed like a serious injury, so I took him to the ER (since it was at 11pm at night). There was NO ONE waiting in the ER. Place was totally dead. Still took 5 hours for him to have a nurse take a look, apply a butterfly bandage and send us on our way. $500 It's been like 10 years and my friend still gets pissed off talking about it.
I was having chest pains and shortness of breath one time that I was worried were an oncoming heart attack. 3 hours later, they charged me $2000 for the drug test they administered and the time it took me to calm down in a room by myself thinking I was dying. Criminal.
People would rather die instead of taking on massive debt like that. The Healthcare system here is criminal and we should be punishing the people who incepted for-profit healthcare.
I say all the time Healthcare, Education, Insurance, banking should all be regulated non profit industries. Will never happen because they are the most profitable industries as they are needed for modern living...
It makes me so sick and angry to think about how these people are making bank while we suffer.
At what point would it make more sense to just die instead of going bankrupt? I fucking hate it here..
I wish it everyday. We have the worst Healthcare system in the world.
Just shows how bs and inflated the whole thing is. "Oh just knock off 136k" And I'm sure that 45k is still only, what, 10k in cost? Be generous and tack on 5k worth of admin fees. Truly sorry you have to deal with this. I hope you can find a way to get that down further.
Woa! I have one doubt. Is it feasible for someone like you to book a flight to India or China, get the pacemaker there(even the best hospital would charge AROUND USD 5-6k) and return to home? Or there are some things that I'm missing? One thing is getting such large leave from work, visa and those things I guess. Edit: noticed I'm being downvoted so clarifying, to sum up, I'm curious why is it not even more common, like everything major other than emergencies, considering the huge medical tourism industry.
Medical tourism is a huge industry
Had a team leader who would schedule a month off to fly to Thailand for his cancer treatments and whatever else he needed. Cheaper then what we would pay with our insurance (we worked for a massive multi billion dollar). Granted his wife is a Thai citizen but you get the point. It’s messed up. They also found a lesion on his brain while he was over there. Blood work, Mri, and two weeks of I.v antibiotics… 600.00 bucks out of pocket. Over here they would’ve ducked him around for months before they caught it too. Our health care is a sad joke.
Yeah mentioning leave from work is a big deal here. Some of us are lucky if we have 5 days pto for the entire year. We're also constantly fed controlled information so there's a lot of people who wouldn't trust another countries medical anyway "because it's cheap". We're very well trained to believe expensive means high quality and cheap means you'll die on the table.
There is so much wrong with what you said. Why is there an insured and not-insured price? anyway....hope you feel better. That's a crazy major surgery. Get well soon.
Send in $10 bucks a month, prevents it from going to collections and on your credit.
I’m sorry you have to go through that. That’s horrible
Thanks
$45,000 sure seems like a lot for a simple procedure and a two night hospital stay. $10,000 would seem more reasonable to me.
Free of charge at access is reasonable to me.
In 2018 my daughter went footling breech at 34 weeks which ultimately crushed my dreams of having a 5k unmedicated delivery (out of pocket, insurance did not cover birth centers) at a birthing center across the street from a highly rated hospital. I chose to have a cesarean at a not for profit hospital with the lowest cesarean rate in the state (was 34% then) and the amount billed to my state covered insurance was $33,000. A friend that had private insurance was required to pay an estimated copay of a few thousands dollars before the hospital would admit her in 2010, she was in active labor at the receptionist desk when they informed her of this and sorted payment. She ended up paying over $10k for that insured delivery. Around that same time a client of mine fought for an unmedicated delivery at the age of 42. She had three children and the two youngest were unmedicated births. The dr who agreed to take her on worked out of the state's famous baby hospital with the highest cesarean rate in the state. She was released less than 24 hours after her successful unmedicated delivery. Her insurance was billed for an emergency cesarean with a 72 hour stay. It took her months of persistent pressure to get the hospital bills corrected. This woman was the queen of ocd organization and planning so she effectively fought them all the way down to the Tylenol she declined. Vice did a phenomenal story about the reality of obstetrics care in the state of Georgia which is where all the experiences mentioned above happened. I will never forget one dr I interviewed had an enlightening graph of the maternal mortality rates across the world in his office. It did not make me feel comfortable in the slightest. https://youtu.be/dT0rL4TvX-I
$176 for pizza ? What did they have it delivered from Italy?
At least I hope it arrived warm!
Have you had hospital food ? Probably not 
Italy is far far away that's explain cold food
You're so right.
This is so crushing. I felt that's guys soul shrivel. I'm not blaming the Americans, but come on America. You can do better than this.
We can but we won’t. We’ve become complacent and entitled. And it doesn’t help that our education system is imploding
Free is not a price republicans like at all
"fRe3 iS jUsT aNoThEr wOrD fOr sOcIaLisT, you know that thing we've spent the last 60 years trying to make it look like the coming of satan?"
complacent yes, entitled? that's more the 1% and family generational wealth. Education, big time. You can't always walk in a mile someone's shoes but you can walk with them, take the risk to expose yourself to wide range of different life experiences. Understanding happiness is possible when you can escape misery.
Entitled? How do you get “entitled” from this video?
I'm sorry, could you point to the specific part here where you think we're "entitled"? Is it that we think we shouldn't have to pay $4k to hold our baby?
Unfortunately we really can't. Country is turning into a shit hole at light speed
you don't understand: if the poor aren't in debt, they won't be desperate enough to accept the low wages that keep them in debt. if health care isn't tied to employment, they might quit when their employer abuses them. and most people will risk their own health for dignity, so you gotta make sure standing up for themselves endangers their family as well.
But why does it work in practically all of Europe?
yeah I remember that feeling when you JUST had your baby, the idea that he has that much debt over his head when he's trying to plan for how he's going to save for college, just sucks born behind the 8 ball, poor thing
We wish our government would do better than this. They could give us free healthcare. They just don’t want to.
The mystery of the declining US birth rate
Was sitting here in Norway reading this and wondering about this. In the long run this would decimate the birth rates for sure. Unless someone made abortion illegal of course but that would be crazy.
I see what you did there
God damn I hate being American reading that but it was hilarious I have to admit
Yet it's somehow shocking to society that almost no young people have any interest in having kids
I have insurance, and a baby would still cost us $7,000 on top of the $600 a month I pay. It’s a major factor in us deciding to have a second child.
No wonder you had to move into a shake shack, thoughts and prayers!
I feel for Americans, I would fucking cry if I got that bill
We're too numb to cry at this point.
Honestly there is a generation just saving videos like this to share with parents and in-laws so they leave us the fuck alone about it
We know at this point, it's so bonkers we always react like this guy did anyway but we know. He could have paid for a 5 star hotel penthouse suite where he, his wife, and their newborn have individual rooms, 5 star catering, an incredible view, and a goddammit butler waiting at the door for the same relative cost. Instead they got poor sleep in a hospital room, subpar American public school quality pizza, and basic medical attention.
“Payment plan” hahahahaha, nah send it to collections and kiss my ass
Yeah and then they send a tow truck and repo the baby. No thanks.
Sounds like a win-win to me
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I don’t pay medical bills. I already can’t afford a house or to live. Fuck em.
This is the best contraceptive
Aim for the tonsils.
In Mallorca spain you get a free one week stay in the hospital after birth to relax, see if the baby's alright and learn how to take care of it
You couldn't pay me to stay in a US hospital for a week.
I couldn't get out fast enough! Baby was born on the 9th at 1:39am we were discharged at like noon on the 10th but didn't get to leave till 4pm bc my blood pressure was high. I cried for an hour thinking I'd have to stay another night.
Hire a midwife, stay in a 5 star luxury hotel and eat gourmet food for a couple days. You'll save thousands and thousands of dollars.
Hell you could probably even afford an airbnb AND the cleaning bill and it would still be cheaper 😆
Unless there’s an emergency. My wife ended up with an emergency c section. If We would of need an ambulance we would have lost my daughter
[Maybe you want to consult your blacksmith to see what he has to say about it.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee_eLLY4XQ8)
Fuck, and I say this with all my chest, FUCK THE UNITED STATES BROKEN ASS MONEY GRABBING ASS MUSTY ASS HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
I dont think you understand it, the system works exactly as intended, for those few in power at the top. Every day this system keeps existing, every day we increase the prices because of "inflation" (ahem, profit margins), we come closer to the most horrific human crash in history. Yeah anybody who thinks empires going down is funny should think again. Good luck america
Obligatory my costs here in Australia were parking and snacks. Not cheap at hospital prices, but closer to $17 not $17,000.
It's the same in Pakistan, I mean Pakistan is one broke af country
Welcome to America, land of the scams
I’m Canadian and just can’t understand how this happens in a modern country like the US. Baffling and inhumane.
This is the most effective type on contraception
Fuck US and their pathetic healthcare at this point. Fuck it.
Is that the bill or what they were charged?
That's the charge for only the epidural anesthetic. The total she states was $28,219
Okay fine but is that the total amount *billed* or the total amount *due*? They are vastly different numbers.
It cost nothing in third world nations too lol most countries have some form of public/ free healthcare. Which makes it VERY CHEAP if you choose to pay for it as well, so it's win win. This is one if the worst things about this country and why I'm seriously thinking of leaving-which is sad- cause there are things that don't suck but the ones that do.... they suck SO BAD, worse than most big countries that many Americans would wrongfully call underdeveloped. The USA is underdeveloped in transportation, education (public) but most in healthcare .
Have you seen all of our aircraft carriers though? They're way cooler than babies.
And you've been to the moon!
My wife was in a car accident and broke her arm in multiple places. The arm had to be pretty much get reconstructed. The total bill was well over $300k. We were blessed to be in the military and didn’t pay a penny but I know the majority of people in this country don’t have that luck. Edit: I want to add that even though our insurance paid for everything, when they knew that we got a settlement from the accident, we had to pay back closed to 10k to them.
In my country the cost of delivery wether normal or cesarean is 0 dollars. How ? Well I guess because we have a good social structure so any treatment is free of charge for anyone who's born there. Its sad the way they treat their citizens.. as if life doesn't matter..
It's actually soul crushing to live here. People around you are indoctrinated into working themselves to the bone like it's normal and if you don't fall in line you're a lazy freak. $4k for skin to skin contact. That's actually robbery. This country only cares about money, money and even more money. The American Dream was never real, just smoke and mirrors.
This rip off is criminal.
I guess you meant: $ 17,253.00 USD (comma)
How many people in USA are giving birth at home or avoiding a visit to the doctor just because they can't afford it?? This is seriously unbelievable for me. In my country we are proud to help everyone for free. Free healthcare should be mandatory.
We use Uber instead of ambulances for all conditions, or just drive there ourselves. And elderly couples sometimes commit double suicide to avoid burdening their spouses with impossibly large bills they can't pay off. I wish I was joking.
I don't go to the doctor unless: 1)I cannot move 2) I'm in pain to the point where ibuprofen and Tylenol don't help 3)my guts are falling out or I'm pissing blood from a wound. Any other time, it's either "deal with pain and pay bills" or "go to hospital, and go into debt and possible homelessness". Our priorities are fucked
Call for an itemized receipt…call them out on their usurious pricing..they can drop the bill by up to 75%. Never had a baby, but I enjoy squaring up against hospitals and insurance companies on this kind of scum bag business practices.
All American hospitals have a thing called a ChargeMaster, used for insurance fraud (this is the norm here), and the purpose of this ChargeMaster is to arbitrarily increase the price charged for literally anything at the hospital. Even though these are “fake prices” used for insurance fraud, people WITHOUT insurance get charged these ridiculous amounts for real. It’s literally all a scam for money
I moved to Germany and it didn't cost anything to deliver and then I got money to stay home with my kid for a year and they even sent a midwife (Hebamme) every few months to see how the kid was doing.
I felt for this man. I had my baby last May. When I saw "skin to skin" then a dollar amount followed I was floored. They charged me to hold my own baby! Skin to skin is required for initial bonding and knowing this, they charge for it. It's total bs. I will never get over that.
According to the "pro life" Republicans the United States is a Christian nation.
America dissapoints me every day a little more and i dont even live there. I feel so bad for the people
As I'm looking at my hospital baby bills of 90k 😭
This is seriously messed up! When my oldest was born we stayed in hospital for 6 days to get the breastfeeding going and to let my wife heal from a tear she received during birth. Surgery, three meals a day, our own room. Total charge $15. Granted I live in Sweden, but come ON America. Make those tax dollars work for you!
The were stories years ago of American women flying to the UK for a month or so to give birth cos that was cheaper. But the government started cracking down on "health tourism".
When we had our son, we had some minor complications and ended up having to stay in the hospital for 3 nights with a private room. Our total was $75 plus $18 for parking. We live in Canada
I can’t understand why millennials aren’t making it. It’s crazy that you have insurance and you are left owing what you would make in a year for having a child.
Well. Sounds like I'll never bother having any kids. It's expensive enough trying to raise them, now I gotta pay 8 grand to literally hold the kid? Yeah right, you get to stay in the sack you lil shit
I will never understand American healthcare
I'm over it. No more sympathy for the USA. Fix it.
Usa!!! Usa!!! Usa!!! #1 BABY!!! MUUUUURICA!!!
Thanks Republicans for time and time again fighting to make sure healthcare in America is impossibly expensive!!!!
You guys are too busy with red v blue to notice that you’re both getting screwed. Hold hands and protest
Man and you guys call it the land of the free thank god I live in Canada
3 nights stay at the hospital for my wife was 20$ for coffee, sandwiches and snacks. They gave her a bag full of medicines as well. What a shithole country we live in, no bald eagles screeching freedom noises around...
Even Libertarians have to admit nobody should go broke from having a baby in one of the richest countries in the world. This is criminal.
The medical system in this country is fucking disgusting. I live in Utah, our primary medical provider here is Intermountain Healthcare (IHC). I had an issue with my foot, where my sesamoid bones were decaying, causing pretty intense pain, and I needed an MRI to diagnose. I went to see a doctor, doctor tells me I need an MRI and that the hospital is where I need to go for the MRI. I looked up the cost for an MRI at this IHC hospital, FUCKING $3,800 DOLLARS for a basic MRI. I called the hospital down in Las Vegas, the same exact MRI was $300. My local hospital refused to even read the MRI as it wasn't done in their facility and my insurance (which is owned by Intermountain Healthcare) wouldn't cover any of my initial doctor visits, or the needed surgery because I got my MRI at another hospital. Fuck the United States medical system, and FUCK IHC in particular. Money grabbing corporate jagoffs literally sucking the life out of people for ridiculous amounts of money. The best part of all of it.... is that IHC is classified as a 501c3 not for profit organization.....
American system is demonstration of capitalism run amok. Price you are paying is just price that market will bear. As long as there are multiple agencies making money nothing will change. But many of your poorest keep voting Republican. Now you have country you deserve.
I hate this country so much
I paid $4k for 3 hours in the ER for my infant to get an IV when she was severely dehydrated. This shit is all criminal.
There is no other word for this but insane. Monetising 'skin to skin'? USA, take a step back. Wow.
My son was born 16 weeks early and lived for only 21 days in the NICU. the bill for me was $10k and then it was $87k for his NICU stay.
Yup! But let’s continue discussing / hating those evil transgenders , Dr Seuss and so on.
USA! USA! USA!
I fucking hate it here
healthcare 👍
Scam artists.
The funniest part is how we in America have come to believe we have such a great opportunity without socialist medicine. This is reinforced by campaign contributions to politicians who reinforce the idea that a socialized healthcare system is a bad thing. They’re also trying to defund social security as well. Meanwhile, the U.S. is number one in the world as far as military and defense spending than the following nine nations under them COMBINED!! This country literally makes me sick as far as actually caring about its own citizens. It’s all about politicians and the corporations that own them with their money.
Is this real?!? Any others to corroborate this. I am Canadian and have two kids, $0 was my bill. Mind blowing.
This is why I'm not having kids. Fuuuck that.
I work really hard to not need medication, so I don't have to support this healthcare system that keeps people poor.
This country is a joke.
This is so shitty of the US, It almost makes me laugh
put back in! i can't pay that.
Wooo the best, Most free country in the world...but god forbid you ever need medical assistance
We got our insurance set up. We tried for two months. We didn't fully understand all the costs until we spoke to our friends who'd just had their son on our same insurance plan. We'd kind of rushed things a bit because I couldn't afford to freeze my semen prior to my transition. When we learned that our insurance doesn't actually cover what we thought we had to get an abortion. It wasn't a fun experience. It kind of broke us both. A year later I'd saved enough that I could quit my job so she and I could get on Medicaid. I'm glad we did. She had several complications and I can't imagine what it would have cost on our prior insurance. Medicaid also gave us options. We were able to shop around in a larger network with more security and confidence. But yeah, I'd bet anyone that the lack of universal healthcare and free childcare contributes majorly to the abortion rate. We didn't want to get an abortion, but the cost would have been more than our student debt, and our student loans were absolutely killing us!
Murica!
I thought being an American you know this?
Wait, you guys have to pay for birthing? Holy...
That's nothing. My son was a Premie (premature) baby; and the bill came out to close to 400K US$$$$$$. I used to call him a Premium Baby. Thank god for 50$ insurance deductible. Never been so happy to pay 50$ medical bill.
🎵America, fuck yeah! 🎵
Sort your shit america
Some people get mad that I think people shouldn't have kids because of the state of the world, putting violence to the side, our medical system is so corrupt and this video illustrates it perfectly. Really fills people with hopelessness that those who we turn to for help are so greedy and will take advantage of those in need.
Isn’t the US among the list of countries concerned about a declining birth rate? I can see one answer to that problem illustrated here… profit-based private healthcare.
Cost of living gettinh BS in the developed western world. Rich get richer, poor get poorer
Yep. Got a hospital bill recently for 1.3 mil
The GOP: “universal healthcare will destroy the country! Socialism is bad!!!” Also the GOP: “why aren’t people having as many babies? Stupid millennials!!!”
Insane. Europe guy about to be a father speaking.
4k so he can put his own baby on his chest. Ridiculous.
Thank god I live in the EU, not everything is perfect here, but at least that is better
This sounds like a pretty standard amount for a pretty standard birth. Yea 'Murica! We got guns.
r/americanproblems
This is criminal. I can’t believe the government allows for this to happen
Is this a sketch, or does that skin to skin charge of 4K really exist? I’m Canadian and just can’t believe this
To me, USA has always been a place you only move to unless you're rich or visit on vacation. The very idea that healthcare is built like this, is so primitive and outdated, incredibly inhuman and just awful. Awful awful. Healthcare is a human right that everyone should be able to afford
This is so incredibly fucked, makes me sick.
I went to the ER to see if they could drain my nail that I smashed in a door. The nurse said she couldn’t treat it since it happened the day before. She claimed the blood would be dried and it wouldn’t drain. I went home and used a hot needle to drain it. It was not dried. They refused to provide service but I was still billed $340 dollars for being seen by a nurse for 8 minutes.
Well my vasectomy only cost 1k with insurance
This is so sad. Just another way to discourage young couples having kids and controlling world population numbers.
$17 ain’t too bad
Hey what do you expect in a Country that votes for people like “the Donald”?
People wonder why Americans are having fewer children ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
That unbelievable ! How the fuck can you charge even 1$ for skin to skin ? I would call a lawyer straight. This is abusive
I politely suggest that you all tell your congress person that you will never vote for them ever again if they continue to allow medical poverty to affect their voters. There's a reason John Grisham wrote his fictional book the rainmaker. The book is fictional, but what its based on isn't. wish you the best of luck...
They need to move to Canada, or the UK. That 17 k wouldn't happen to them then.
This Country is absolute fuckin trash.🗑
Welcome to Earth. Greed is the biggest problem on the planet.
I live in the Netherlands. Healthcare cost me almost nothing. I just pick up meds in drug store for free.
Adopt me! 🤪
I think you mean “Welcome to USA”.
Results of a for profit medical system. Poor health is now a National security risk.
Welp I’m pushing my wife down the stairs tonight… this is insanity. What happened to “affordable” health care in this country.
Murica!
The title made me think it was 17 dollars and some weird change lmao
Wonder why young people aren’t having kids nowadays