The High Cost of Giving Birth in the U.S.

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/high-cost-giving-birth-us

Giving birth in the United States is far more expensive than in other countries, and the additional cost does not appear to come with additional benefits — Americans do not have more access to care or better access to care than citizens in other developed nations, according to an analysis from the New York Times.

“It’s not primarily that we get a different bundle of services when we have a baby,” Gerard Anderson, an economist at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health who studies international health costs, told the Times. “It’s that we pay individually for each service and pay more for the services we receive.”

This is an unusual model among other countries, as the Times notes:

Only in the United States is pregnancy generally billed item by item, a practice that has spiraled in the past decade, doctors say. No item is too small. Charges that 20 years ago were lumped together and covered under the general hospital fee are now broken out, leading to more bills and inflated costs. There are separate fees for the delivery room, the birthing tub and each night in a semiprivate hospital room, typically thousands of dollars. Even removing the placenta can be coded as a separate charge…

Add up the bills, and the total is startling. “We’ve created incentives that encourage more expensive care, rather than care that is good for the mother,” said Maureen Corry, the executive director of Childbirth Connection.

[madaboutharry]

1. It all comes down to one word;

Greed.

[abelenkpe]

2. K&R