I’m Canadian. And I’m already sorry for asking an ignorant question.
I know you have to pay for hospital visits in the states. I know lower economic status can come with lower access to birth control and sex education. But then, how do they afford to give birth? Do people ever avoid hospital visits because they don’t feel like they can’t afford it?
Do hospitals put people on a payment plan? Is it possible to give birth and not pay if you don’t have the means? How does it work in the states?
How does it all work?
Again. Canadian. And sorry.
My sister was on welfare and had a kid around the same time as me. Hers was covered completely by Medicaid.
Mine, because I had a job and health insurance, cost me $20,000. Didn’t finish paying for the kid until her 2nd birthday.
Oh my.
Medicaid is the correct answer. Surprised more people aren’t mentioning it. It’s specifically in place to cover people with low incomes who often don’t have insurance through an employer.
Medicaid will often cover the cost of child birth for low-income people 100%.
That being said, if you have slightly higher income than allowed to enroll in Medicaid, your only option may be a long-term payment plan and lots of debt that you may carry for the rest of your life. It’s an awful system that really only benefits the strong.
Canada, don’t go down that road.
That’s pretty much how it works. Newborns qualify for Medicaid, and low income pregnant women generally do too.
I always wonder what would of happened to my son if I wasn’t Canadian. He was not growing properly in the womb which meant many doctors appointments and ultrasounds . And then he was born 3 months premature and spent 3 months in the NICU. I didn’t have to pay a cent for any of it .
Natural selection would have taken place if you were American
Are you familiar enough with the details to share them? Because this sounds strange to me - every plan has an out of pocket maximum and the highest I’ve seen is $14k. Are you including premiums? Do the costs span multiple years?
This was pre-Obamacare, and the birth alone - with c section - was $20k.
I’m not American so maybe I’m getting something wrong… But aren’t you making a faulty assumption about people having a plan at all? Isn’t the amount of completely uninsured in the us in the double digits or something?
No.
Plus in the comment she said she had insurance.
The original commenter did mention they had health insurance
You’re correct, my bad