Where it costs the most to give birth
By the numbers: For vaginal deliveries, Alaska has the highest average cost (about $29,200), followed by New York and New Jersey (both about $21,800).
Alaska also has the highest average cost for C-sections ($39,500), followed by Maine ($28,800) and Vermont ($28,700).
How it works: The amounts in FAIR's Cost of Giving Birth Tracker include delivery, ultrasounds, lab work and more.
They reflect total costs paid by patients and their insurance companies, as applicable.
Insured patients' financial responsibilities are typically well below the total amount paid, with average out-of-pocket costs of just under $3,000 in 2018-2020, per a 2022 Peterson-KFF analysis.
What they're saying: Many factors drive the differences between states, FAIR Health's Rachel Kent tells Axios, including provider training levels, local salaries and costs of living, malpractice insurance costs and insurers' bargaining power.
Between the lines: Black and Hispanic people paid more out-of-pocket for maternal care than Asian and white patients with the same insurance, per a study published earlier this year in JAMA Health Forum.
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USA Today
4 hours ago
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Her doctor said her tumor was harmless, common among Black women. It was cancer.
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In a July 2024 survey of 50 cancer survivors across the U.S. who were misdiagnosed, 92% said the misdiagnosis hurt their health, 64% had their treatment delayed, and 56% said their cancer advanced to a later stage. 'Not in a million years' could it be cancer When Little's tumor was first discovered and misidentified as a fibroid, she shared the news with her family. Her mom told her it was fine; she had them too. Her aunt, who also had fibroids, said, 'It's just something that you live with.' Instead, Little attributed her symptoms to her first pregnancy, even when she became severely anemic. 'I still thought, 'OK, pregnancy is brutal,'' she says. Her anemia symptoms became so severe that Little dropped out of college and moved back home. After she had her son, her OBGYN placed her on birth control in an attempt to shrink the suspected fibroid tumor. A few months had passed, and a routine ultrasound showed that the tumor was getting larger. 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