Re:Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy...
by gregmac on Wednesday January 25, 2017 @01:57PM
(#13484661)
> $3,000 for giving birth in a Swiss hospital plus much better care, or $30,000 for bare minimum care in the US
I still find both of these numbers insane. In Canada, I paid $40 to upgrade to a private room because we had to stay overnight. To be fair though, my benefits from work already paid $60 to go from the free 'ward' (4 people) room to semi-private (2 people).
Had we not stayed it would have cost $0 -- that includes a private delivery room, delivery by a midwife we had been seeing for a few months, the midwife coming to our house at 4am before we went to the hospital, any emergency intervention by nurses/doctors (if needed, thankfully we didn't), plus the midwife coming to our house a few times for follow-ups for the first few weeks.
It's the same cost ($0) to get a OB/GYN except delivery is by whoever is on call (not necessarily your doctor), and early pregnancy and follow-up care is by your regular family doctor at their office.
Oh yeah I also had to pay for parking, that was like $30.
I still find both of these numbers insane. In Canada, I paid $40 to upgrade to a private room because we had to stay overnight. To be fair though, my benefits from work already paid $60 to go from the free 'ward' (4 people) room to semi-private (2 people).
Had we not stayed it would have cost $0 -- that includes a private delivery room, delivery by a midwife we had been seeing for a few months, the midwife coming to our house at 4am before we went to the hospital, any emergency intervention by nurses/doctors (if needed, thankfully we didn't), plus the midwife coming to our house a few times for follow-ups for the first few weeks.
It's the same cost ($0) to get a OB/GYN except delivery is by whoever is on call (not necessarily your doctor), and early pregnancy and follow-up care is by your regular family doctor at their office.
Oh yeah I also had to pay for parking, that was like $30.