American Way of Birth, Costliest in the World (click here
June 30, 2013
By Elisabeth Rosenthal
LACONIA, N.H. — Seven months pregnant, at a time when most expectant couples are stockpiling diapers and choosing car seats, Renée Martin was struggling with bigger purchases.
At a prenatal class in March, she was told about epidural anesthesia
and was given the option of using a birthing tub during labor. To each
offer, she had one gnawing question: “How much is that going to cost?”
Though Ms. Martin, 31, and her husband, Mark Willett, are both professionals with health insurance,
her current policy does not cover maternity care. So the couple had to
approach the nine months that led to the birth of their daughter in May
like an extended shopping trip though the American health care bazaar,
sorting through an array of maternity services that most often have no
clear price and — with no insurer to haggle on their behalf — trying to
negotiate discounts from hospitals and doctors.
When she became pregnant, Ms. Martin called her local hospital inquiring
about the price of maternity care; the finance office at first said it
did not know, and then gave her a range of $4,000 to $45,000. “It was
unreal,” Ms. Martin said. “I was like, How could you not know this?
You’re a hospital.”
Midway through her pregnancy, she fought for a deep discount on a $935 bill for an ultrasound,
arguing that she had already paid a radiologist $256 to read the scan,
which took only 20 minutes of a technician’s time using a machine that
had been bought years ago. She ended up paying $655. “I feel like I’m in
a used-car lot,” said Ms. Martin, a former art gallery manager who is
starting graduate school in the fall....
