Mom Who Went Through 3 Miscarriages Reveals Just How Much She Was Charged Each Time She Lost A Baby
Krakenimages.com | ShutterstockThe cost of healthcare in the United States is something people love to complain about, but based on India Batson Martinez’s story about how much her three miscarriages cost her financially, there seems to be a pretty good reason people are so upset.
The content creator has described herself as a “Type A mom” in her videos, and recently shared that she is planning her son’s first birthday party. She went through quite a bit of heartbreak before giving birth to him, though. In an Instagram post, she explained that she miscarried three times pretty close together, and found herself on the hook for over $100,000 in costs associated with the care for each.
The mom shared the costs of her miscarriages, hoping to call attention to the healthcare crisis in the U.S., especially for women.
Her first miscarriage was a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, she said. This one cost the most out of the three, coming in at $59,409.98. Some additional information she shared was absolutely heartbreaking. “I am still dealing with the grief of my first pregnancy loss, but I am also still trying to settle that bill because my insurance is arguing with me that I could have gone to a different hospital where it would have been cheaper,” she said.
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Martinez explained that she got pregnant again just “months later,” but had a missed miscarriage that time. The resulting surgery cost $23,411.07. She joked that she “managed to get a discounted rate” the third time she miscarried because she was only charged $18,241.
By her calculations, this has all cost her a total of $101,560.98. In the caption, she added, “The cost of going into the hospital and leaving without your baby is ASTRONOMICALLY expensive and even more emotionally taxing.” Unfortunately, hospital billing departments and insurance companies don’t seem to be overly concerned about the “emotionally taxing” part of the ordeal.
The people who commented on Martinez’s post were pretty shocked, and rightfully so.
Two people shared their own experiences with miscarriages in other countries that were completely different. An Australian woman said she had a stillbirth when she was 39 weeks pregnant, and she wasn’t charged “one single cent.” Another woman who miscarried when she was in Germany shared that she did have to pay $1,750.56, which covered the cost of her overnight hospital stay and meals.
“The U.S. has no right to call itself a first-world country,” someone else said. “That is cooked. I’m sorry for your losses.” Another mused, “Hm, and they wonder why the birth rate is low.” A third person argued, “This is abuse against women.”
Unsurprisingly, other women had gone through the same thing. One shared that she avoided going to the emergency room for her miscarriage because she knew she couldn’t afford it. Another woman needed an emergency C-section and blood transfusion due to preeclampsia and hemorrhaging. Her insurance said they wouldn’t cover her time in the hospital because she didn’t “pre-approve [her] stay.”
Healthcare is more expensive in the U.S., but it’s even more unbelievable for women.
There are a lot of different arguments about just why healthcare costs so much in the U.S. The simplest answer might have come from Cynthia Cox, part of the health research organization KFF. “A hospital visit in the United States costs more,” she said. “A doctor’s visit costs more. The same prescription drug costs more.”
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To make matters worse, a report from Deloitte found that women spend $15 billion more on healthcare each year in the U.S. than men do.
This is incredibly unfair. Why should powerful people encourage women to have more children when they face extreme costs for doing so? A woman who miscarries is already going through emotional turmoil, and she shouldn’t be expected to pay outrageous expenses on top of that.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
