My mother-in-law's bill for my sister-in-law's birth.
This the TOTAL bill from the hospital. (She never throws anything away)
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[OP]
Member
My mother-in-law's bill for my sister-in-law's birth.
This the TOTAL bill from the hospital. (She never throws anything away)
.
"I love the smell of sawdust in the morning".
Robert Duval in "Apileachips Now". - almost.
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$125.00 for a girl!! I wonder how much boys cost back then?,
Quite a change in the last sixty years.
That's pretty cool Mitch.
"The first thing you need to know, will likely be the last thing you learn." (Unknown)
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I must agree that this is a bargain, but my math gets me $276. I wonder what that is in today's dollars? I'd bet it would still be a bargain compared to what they charge now.Originally Posted by Mike Cutler
$125.00 for a girl!! I wonder how much boys cost back then?
Quite a change in the last sixty years.
That's pretty cool Mitch.
Today they would have sent them home after one day, or maybe even the same day.
Last edited by Larry Browning; 07-15-2009 at 9:22 AM.
Larry J Browning
There are 10 kinds of people in this world; Those who understand binary and those who don't.
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My oldest daughters bill was $42,000, and my youngest was $14,000. My, how the times change. I guess that my oldest would most likely have not made it in a 1950 hospital, and the same for mom on the youngest. Count me as not grumbling too much about the prices!
Of course, there is the matter of that $1200 xray....
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Looking up the CPI for 1950, I get 24.10, 215.30 for 2009 (100 for 1982), and your calculation of $276 for the total bill, that would come to $2,465.68 in today's dollars.
I think health care is a little ahead of the CPI, but then again, I bet $276 invested wisely 59 years ago would net you much more than $2500 today. If you got a 10% average annual rate of return, you could have over $76,000.
The moral of the story? Twenty-somethings should put away a few hundred bucks for the birth of their grandkids.
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I heard an older gentlemen describe recently that in 1946 he went to his dentist for a tooth extraction. Upon completion the bill was $2.00. This gentlemen said that the average wage was forty to sixty cents per hour. It took him four hours to pay off the bill.
Latest rate is roughly $1,000. At $15.hr, it would take a person over sixty hours (before taxes) to pay off this charge.
4 hours versus 66.6 hours? A sixteen fold increase.
There's just something wrong with that.
And yes, hospitals can't get new mothers out of their doors fast enough. Shameful.
Measure twice, cut three times, start over. Repeat as necessary.
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That's why some of us support the recent trend towards midwifery. Our first was born in our living room, but being 5-6 weeks early, the midwife made the call to transport her to the hospital about an hour after birth. The two boys followed suit with being that early, and were born in the hospital, though the same midwife was with us for the second as well. She had come to check my wife and said, "You're 8cm, and I don't have my kit with me--we're going to the hospital NOW!" All 3 stayed in the NICU for about a week to the tune of $12-18k
IMO, pregnancies have been treated as an illness for far too long, and a hospital (where a bunch of ill people are) is the last place I want my wife and newborn if I can at all avoid it.
I should add, I had a wisdom tooth pulled a little over a year ago, and the total bill, including x-rays and drugs (an antibiotic and some Vicodin) was about $250.
Last edited by Jason Roehl; 07-15-2009 at 11:57 AM.
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No one goes to the hospital because they are healthy or trying to get healthy that's for sure. But a maternity ward should be a place where the process of birth affords the mother (and father) some basic comforts that a regular hospital room is not equipped to offer.
Our priorities are skewed when we treat newborns as a drain on medical resources. Perhaps this explains in part why the US is so poorly ranked in the world in the infant mortality rate (29th out of 37 developed nations).
Measure twice, cut three times, start over. Repeat as necessary.
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My children were born in 1985 and 1987.
The youngest was born in a birthing suite, rather than the "operating " type room the older child was born in.
The birthing suite was nice, furniture similar to a bedroom, with a large TV on the wall, and you didn't have to wear a gown/mask etc.
I don't remember any cost for the first one, the second child was under $20 for some incidental expenses that weren't covered by healthcare. She had jaundice and had to stay an extra 3 days so that may have been the issue.
Regards, Rod.
Contributor
Deaths per 1,000 births in 1950 = 29
Deaths per 1,000 births in 1950 = 44 (if black)
Deaths per 1,000 births in 2003 = 7
Deaths per 1,000 births in 2003 = 13 (if black)
The US is still 29th out of 37 developed nations.
In 1950, 2,960 women died in childbirth. In 1998, 281.
Glenn ClaboMichigan
Member
Rod, I don't want to get political, I'm just curious how the health care system is funded up there? I just read that some folks will be taxed at 55% in the States if the health care bill goes through here. How does that compare to Canada?
Member
55% of what? Source?
Americans spend far more of our GDP than any other nation that has universal health care. In the key indexes used to measure the effectiveness of health care systems, the US is way down the list in every category.
Most nations have a health care system. We have a health insurance system.
Measure twice, cut three times, start over. Repeat as necessary.
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IMO, any health care system has to have incentives against utilization. That is, it should cost the user something to use the system. If there's no incentives against utilization, the utilization just goes off the chart.
The cost to the user can be modest, just big enough to make them think before using the system, but small enough that they can use it when they judge it's necessary. For major issues, catastrophic coverage would kick in to avoid bankrupting the user.
Mike
Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.
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Well stated Mike. I'm curious however as to what percentage of of patients in universal health care systems abuse the system?
That said, even with the abuses factored in, every one else is paying less for health care than we are in the US. Their life expectancies are higher, their quality of life in later years is better and the infant mortality rates are lower than here.
I suspect that once people got use to the idea of being able to seek health care when they were getting ill or injured, we would see a reduction in overall costs. Treating symptoms rather than full blown illness or injuries. It's cheaper to provide physical therapy to alleviate a problem at an early stage rather than let the condition persist for years and ultimately result in a costly surgery. Meanwhile, the patient unnecessarily suffers.
Measure twice, cut three times, start over. Repeat as necessary.
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No, that would be the tax bracket that they are in.
Just to put my bias in the open, I have a problem working my tail off to pay for my family's health care, plus someone elses. I can take the responsibilty for my own bills, they can too. I won't disagree that the system seems a "little" broke, but as one of those looking at a tax bracket of 50% or so, I have to wonder if it is even worth it anymore. Why work so darned hard? Why should I take all the risk to have a business and carry so much more tax liability? Isn't the risk that comes with being an employeer enough?
Honestly, I don't want to get political, but I'm seriously considering doing something else for a living that requires paying way less taxes. I doubt I'm the only one, then who is going to pay? I hear the "rich". I'm not rich, not even close, but every now and then everything works, and the IRS gets a big check from me. What is the reward anymore? Why should I stick my neck out for a society that gives nothing back to me?
Sorry for the rant...
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