America has the most expensive cost of giving birth in America at $32,093 on average as reported by the advocacy group Childbirth Connection. This is for an uncomplicated vaginal birth with newborn care. A caesarean section is $51,125 on average without complications.
Most other countries are far less expensive. For example, Spain is only $1,950.
The US also gets much worse medical care even though we pay the most… our infant mortality rate is 6.1 for every 1,000 live births which is higher than Slovakia & Hungary and TRIPLE the rate of Japan or Finland. We also have the WORST maternal mortality rate in the developed world.
Why is American health care so expensive yet has such bad outcomes?
Doctors have a trade union, the American Medical Association, that is the most powerful in the union and protects doctors interests over those of American citizens. The AMA uses two methods to keep doctor’s wages high:
- The AMA strictly limit the number of new doctor’s allowed to be trained each year. By limiting supply, they greatly increase prices.
- The AMA introduces lots of unnecessary medical regulations, greatly raising the cost of medical care and preventing anyone else from competing with them.
How can we reform our medical care system and get 3x better treatment like people in Japan or Finland? How can we reduce our costs by 10x? We need to strongly push for all the artificial limits on the number of doctors and the regulations preventing non-doctors from providing medical care to be reformed.
Continue reading on why American spend so much on health care and what we can do about it here.