Skip to content
Rounds
0:00 / 0:00

Giving birth costs a lot. Hospitals won't tell you how much.

Vox

12M subscribers • 3 videos on Rounds

YouTube
  • Recommended by 1 person, in Hacker News.
  • May be out of date. Uploaded 10 years ago, in an area where guidance changes.

For anyone, no background needed. Education, not medical advice.

3.3M views10 years ago1 recommendation

Clinical medicineHealthcare systems and costsPublic health and policy

A Vox reporter documents his futile attempts to obtain a price estimate from hospitals for his wife's upcoming childbirth.

I tried to find out how much my son’s birth would cost before it happened. I failed. Subscribe to our channel! goo.gl/0bsAjO Childbirth is a really common procedure in the US. Around 4 million women will go to a hospital this year. And most births are relatively uncomplicated. But even for the most common medical procedure in the US, the price for labor and delivery is almost impossible to find out before it happens. I decided to try it out--to see if I could get a number of how much my wife's birth would cost before it happened. This video is the story of what happened. Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out vox.com to get up to speed on everything from Kurdistan to the Kim Kardashian app. Check out our full video catalog: goo.gl/IZONyE Follow Vox on Twitter: goo.gl/XFrZ5H Or on Facebook: goo.gl/U2g06o

Why it's here

1 person recommends this

What people say. Recommended as a clear demonstration of the near-impossibility of finding out healthcare prices in advance in the United States.

elicashin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Thoughts on Insurance”

Here's a great video that I think is related to this topic about the near-impossibility of finding out the cost of giving birth: link to this video I'd imagine the reasons for the complexity are the same as an injury. Edit: Just a thought... What if enough consumers went line-by-line AFTER the fact and shared what the specific breakdown of every item cost? So then you'd be able to say, okay, at this hospital them giving us an Advil cost $X and them doing this procedure cost $Y. Some way of making the master price list for how much individual items cost public and grouping together ones that generally appear together...
View on Hacker News

pwinnskiin Hacker News • Mentions

On “'Legitimate' US healthcare pricing could reduce costs by a third”

You seem to be literally the only person who has been able to get straight answers from anyone on anything related to health care. As you can probably see from this thread, most of us would have the same reaction: impotent frustration. I can go to another dealer if I don't get straight answers. I can walk away at any point up until the final signature. This is simply not an analogous situation, as evidenced by the repeated testimony of everyone here. And this guy: link to this video
View on Hacker News

elicashin Hacker News • Mentions

On “Emergency rooms are monopolies”

Relevant: link to this video The "existing legislation and regulation" section is pretty interesting for wikipedia: link
View on Hacker News

drchewbaccain Hacker News • Mentions

On “Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?”

I find it surprising that the US is seen as strongly free market when things like this crop up all over the place. Here's a video of someone failing to get pricing in advance for a medical procedure and an article about how many simple tasks need licences. The fact that a lot of areas only have 1 broadband provider blows my mind. link to this video link link
View on Hacker News

empath75in Hacker News • Mentions

On “A Common Blood Test Can Cost $11 or Almost $1k”

Hospitals won’t tell you the costs of treatment ahead of time, even for easily predictable items like baby delivery. It’s impossible to shop around. link to this video
View on Hacker News

elliekellyin Hacker News • Mentions

On “US doctor forgives $650k in medical bills for cancer patients”

Reminds me of the Vox reporter who tried to get a hospital quote for how much it would cost his wife to have a baby: link to this video I’m sure you can guess the outcome.
View on Hacker News

AlotOfReadingin Hacker News • Mentions

On “Surgery estimated cost $1,300. Then the Bill Came: $229,000”

You can try to comparison shop all you want, but no hospital will give you details in the chargemaster if they aren't legally obligated to. Even if you are in a position to shop around, journalists have documented their futile attempts to do price estimation for routine procedures. Here's one example: link to this video There have been recent laws that requiring publishing some of that information (which are being heavily contested), but comparison shopping remains effectively impossible in the US.
View on Hacker News