What is the average medical cost to have a baby

Restricting patient spending for maternity care may be an important opportunity to improve maternal and neonatal health for American families. Higher deductible plans and co-pays, along with possible misconceptions about what the ACA requires for maternity health care coverage, may be areas advocates and lawmakers could target for improvement, Moniz says.

We all want babies to have the best possible start in life. Beata Mostafavi. January 06, PM. Costs of childbirth Childbirth is a leading reason for hospitalization among women of reproductive age.

Michelle Moniz, M. High-Risk Pregnancy. For many expectant parents, one question looms above everything else: how much does it cost to have a baby? While you might be tempted to forget about this to focus on more exciting things like decorating your nursery and buying all the new clothes the baby will need, its an important thing to think about. Both pregnancy and birth require a lot of medical attention.

The costs of having a baby include more than just the actual childbirth. These costs also include the regular check-ups, tests and prenatal care associated with pregnancy.

Complications during birth, however, for a vaginal or C-section delivery will increase the charges for childbirth. They analyzed the insurance claims data for the cost of all the treatments and services the women used during the year prior to their delivery, during the delivery itself, and for three months after—to account for any health services that might have affected their pregnancy outcomes.

Read: Why childcare is so ridiculously expensive. The reason for the increase, according to the study authors, is the rise in high deductibles—the lump sums that insurance companies make their customers pay before the companies will kick in any money.

Indeed, more Americans have found themselves on plans with high deductibles in recent years as employers have sought to shift health-care costs onto employees. In the new study, Moniz and her colleagues found that the percentage of women with deductibles rose from about 69 percent to about 87 percent in the seven-year time period. Women paid a greater share—about 7 percent more—of their childbirth expenses as a result. In the U. David Anderson, a research associate with the Duke-Robert J.

Margolis Center for Health Policy who was not involved in the study, says while this study reinforces the effect of high deductibles on American patients, it has some drawbacks. By including all medical care in the 12 months leading up to delivery, he says, the Health Affairs authors risked overestimating the childbirth-related medical expenses of the women in the study.