Look at this document! I mean it seriously. Look at it!

I know. I know. It looks like some boring document typed on one of those ancient machines called typewriters.
Look at the top two lines. It says: “Statement” and under that: “St. Elizabeth Hospital”.
Yes. This is a hospital bill. My parents received this bill for maternity care for my birth in 1956. I blacked out all the identifying info, but trust me, it is the actual bill.
My dear mom saved it all these years! She thought it might be interesting to see someday. Good call, Mom!
According to Mom, I entered the world kicking and screaming about 2 AM. No C-section. No complications. Mom had one minor complication. We stayed six days. The normal stay for maternity care back then was five days.
Look toward the bottom right. The total bill was $141.45. Yes. You read that right. One hundred forty one dollars and 45 cents for six days in the hospital for a mother and baby.
It cost $5 each day for the five days I spent in the nursery. Room and board for Mom – $15 each day. Other costs were: lab work, $5; supplies, $4.50 and drugs, $10 total.
I called Mom to discuss the cost of my birth.
Me: “Did you get a separate bill from the OB/GYN?”
Mom: “Let me go check.”
Me: “What do you mean by: ‘Let me go check?’ Do you have the cancelled checks you wrote all the way back to 1956?”
Mom: “I have the check registers.”
Me: “You’re joking.”
After a 15 minute search, Mom found the check registers but could not find a check to the OB/GYN.
Mom: “I think we paid him about $300.00.”
Me: “So the total bill was about $450?”
Mom: “Yes.”
Me: “So did medical insurance pay the hospital bill?”
Mom: “I found a check to the hospital for $41.45. So insurance must have paid $100. But insurance refused to pay for your older brother, because he was born 11 months after we were married. Back then, insurance would only pay if the parents were married an entire year.”
Me: “Interesting, fact, Mom. So were you born at home?”
Mom: “Yes. My older brother and sister and I were born at home. My younger brother was born in a hospital.”
Me: “Did grandma have help?”
Mom: “My aunt, a nurse, and a doctor came. Doctors used to make house calls.”
Me: “Yes, even I remember a doctor coming to our house once or twice. Why do you think women started having babies in hospitals instead of staying at home?”
Mom: “Well, lots of babies died at birth back then. And doctors decided it was more convenient for them to deliver babies in a hospital instead of going to the mother’s home. Doctors wanted us to be in the hospital in case there was a problem. It was a precaution.”
Me: “Thanks, Mom!”
Let’s look at the increase in cost for maternity care over the past 57 years. The average hospital stay today is two days for a vaginal birth and four days for a C-section.
According to this recent CNN article by Eugene Declercq the current cost of maternity care is “outrageous. Total costs average $18,329 for a vaginal delivery and $27,866 for a C-section, with the bulk of the bill going to insurers. However, families with insurance still have to pay about $3,400 out of pocket. What’s ironic is we can’t even claim that the extra expense pays off in healthier mothers and babies. According to a study by the Institute of Medicine, the U.S. ranks at or near the bottom on virtually all maternity care outcomes.”
And there are many other similar articles on the Internet. So the obvious question is: How could hospital costs increase from $141.45 to $18,329 in 57 years? Does it really cost $18,000+ to help a woman push a baby out of her body? Are babies taking a new, more complicated path?
For that much money I hope the hospital is providing breastfeeding and babysitting for an entire year and a gold-plated birth certificate.
And I think it is wrong that doctors have convinced women that giving birth is a medical procedure. Unless problems arise, I don’t know of any reason that a baby needs to be born in a hospital. If I were a young, healthy pregnant woman, I would have my child either at home, or in a birthing center as he recommends.
If there is an emergency, an ambulance can quickly get a pregnant woman or baby to the hospital.
That is my opinion. But I am only 57 years young.