Parents Are Being Asked to Pay the Cost of Delivering Their Babies in Advance
Childbirth is already unaffordable for many. Now some are being asked to pay the bill before they even go into labor.
Boomers:
Why don't I have grandkids?
Millenials/Zoomers:
You got cash up front for that?
We fucking don't.
“Why is there a fertility crisis?”
Other than "line go up" economics, which I don't care about, I don't see a "crisis." Overall, less people is good for people and, more importantly, all the other life we are supposed to share the planet with.
100% for the wellbeing of life on earth. 0% for publicly traded corporation stock prices, at least in the medium term. That line can't go up forever.
And why do states care so much about the birth rate crisis? Because it hurts them financially. https://missouriindependent.com/2024/10/22/missouri-mifepristone-lawsuit-andrew-bailey-teen-pregnancy/
We’ll just do what Russia does and outlaw anything that even encourages not having kids
Wait - that means outlawing this pre-pay system. Effectively slapping regulations on the free market. In fact, you could argue the costs of delivery, in general, encourages not having kids. Guess if conservatives want to emulate pooty poot we have to have deliveries subsidized. This alignment with Russia won’t take long to start making conservatives heads explode.
sorry Ms Jones, the credit card bounced, we're going to need to put it back
My grandpa said the hospital told him they wouldn't release grandma and my aunt, their first kid, until he paid the bill in full. They were poor, clearly, and he said he could make payments but that was about it and they refused. He spent an hour feeling hopeless, then realized they were full of shit, walked back in and said ''OK, you can keep them.'' And tried to leave again. Turned out they COULD accept payments.
And then everybody clapped.
Fuckin USA healthcare. I don't care what anybody says, Kaiser Permanente having the insurance company and the health care provider unified is good for human wellbeing because it aligns the incentives of the insurance company and care providers.
My first kid was born at KP and cost like $300 out of pocket. My second kid was born with Blue Shield and cost like $20,000. Both were c-sections with a multi-day recovery due to complications, and the complications on the first were life threatening. Even the food in the Kp kitchen was amazing. I literally would've just gone there to eat.
Hell yes brother! I paid 20k for my first born on Blue Cross Blue shield platinum! 10k before she was even born.
My son's birth with Kaiser was $250.
It's the ol' dilate and dash scam. Seen it a hundred times. I keep telling the hospitals they gotta get their money up front. It's a lot harder to rip people off if they've already gotten what they wanted.
Hospital called us outta the blue to try this. We weren't gonna pay some random caller over the phone that much money. Asked the lady if there was a different way to get a hold of her through the hospital system. She gave me her number, refused to give her name. Were like, how are we supposed to confirm you're with the hospital if we just directly call you back, on whatever number you provide us. After another minute of arguing and frustration about this, the lady finally gave in and gave us the name of the hospital department. Tried calling it back through the hospital system, nobody ever answered, so they never got a prepayment. We asked the OB and later hospital staff if this was standard practice, just to make sure it wasn't a scam. We never got a straight answer from either party.
The sketchiest bill I've ever received was from an ER visit. Their website looked so fake that I looked up their phone number and called them directly to figure it out.
Fun fact:
In China, people are expected to pre-pay for treatments, including emergency treatments. Its actually a common trope in TV/Movies where a poor person is dying and unable to afford an expensive emergency surgery, and call a rich relative/friend that they haven't talked to for years to pay for them.
Well looks like the US is heading the way there.
Forget about it, the person's pro-western Chinese diaspora who believes their parents' right-wing propaganda comes from le ebil mainland, rather than inside
Well you see, if the US is doing something completely evil and indefensible then the only fallback for the American exceptionalism-poisoned western mind is to immediately declare that everywhere else is even worse! Otherwise we wouldn't live in the Greatest Country on Earth(tm), and that's impossible no matter how much our lying eyes say otherwise.
Now, with such policy, as long as medical costs stay low and medical facilities improve, with more investment, surely there should be some improvement (after all, we all live in first-class countries, unlike China or Russia)
I had to pre pay for my first child due to my shit insurance at the time. This was about 12yrs ago but they took the cost of the delivery and appointments and broke it into a $300 payment every OBGYN appointment my wife needed. Unfortunately the last 8 weeks she had to go in weekly for stress tests, that was an expensive few months. About a year later I got a check in the mail from the OBGYN office for about $900, they said it was for overpayment on the account, so that was nice I suppose.
would you like to create a payment plan for this birth?
Can confirm this happened to my me last year.
Just take it out of their college funds. You did start the college fund prior to conception no?