Baby got bills

For the last couple of months my wife and I have been playing a quintessentially American game of Guess the Baby Bill. The rules are simple: try to guess exactly how much we would be charged for the birth of our daughter earlier this year. Last week the hospital bill finally came, putting an end to the guessing game. The cost of an uncomplicated vaginal birth? $37,617.69.

Anyway, the good news is that we don’t have to pay the entire bill: our health insurance covers about $31,000 – leaving us with a balance of around $6,000. Although, of course, that doesn’t make the ridiculously high prices OK. We’re still covering the costs indirectly via our enormous insurance premiums. Which, we were recently informed by Oxford Health, part of UnitedHealth Group, are going to go up by 16% next year. But it’s understandable, I guess. They need that money to do the things health companies are supposed to do: maximise profits, boost the share price and pay their executives huge amounts of money. The UnitedHealth Group’s chief executive made over […]