68
Couple left with $200k bill after baby born in US
(www.bbc.co.uk)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2026
68 points (100.0% liked)
Not The Onion
21399 readers
158 users here now
Welcome
We're not The Onion! Not affiliated with them in any way! Not operated by them in any way! All the news here is real!
The Rules
Posts must be:
- Links to news stories from...
- ...credible sources, with...
- ...their original headlines, that...
- ...would make people who see the headline think, “That has got to be a story from The Onion, America’s Finest News Source.”
Please also avoid duplicates.
Comments and post content must abide by the server rules for Lemmy.world and generally abstain from trollish, bigoted, ableist, or otherwise disruptive behavior that makes this community less fun for everyone.
And that’s basically it!
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
From what I've heard from Americans working in hospitals is that this bill is what the hospital writes but they only charge a small amount and declare the rest at their own insurance as a loss. So the couple would end up with a bill of a few hundred dollars, nothing more. This is common practice, is what those people told me. I don't know if this is the case in every state though. But it sure is one weird fucked up system.
Is that a legitimate business strategy?
I just send my customer a bill for a ridiculous amount, then my customer negotiates for something significantly less, and I can write off the difference?
There must be more to this. It's too good to be true.
I've also read stories from people who have negotiated how much of their bill they paid. Fucked up indeed.
Our first baby was born 5 weeks early and had to spend about 3 weeks in the NICU before we could take him home. Nothing major, just monitoring and a careful feeding regimen to make sure he would make it, as sensitive as they are when born that early.
My wife had to pay $30 for the 3 days she rented a bed in the maternity ward ($10/day). That was our total bill.
Second child we paid nothing.
Nothing negotiated, just how it works in my country. ✌️