God/Jesus bless America, huh?

The evening prior we both broke down because she had been in the NICU for 7 days and we wanted desperately to bring her home so she would be out of that place. Hospitals kill lots of people and babies due to all the germs floating around. A nurse suggested we do skin to skin contact because it is stimulating to both parents and baby. It worked and within a few days of doing this several times a day she got so much stronger and was released 2 days later. Greys anatomy did a show about this recently where a baby was expected to die but a doctor took his shirt off and held the baby for a few days and saved her life. Yes I understand it was a scripted TV show but it was based on what really goes on in NICUs.

that's a really cool story, glad everything worked out for the best :)

Agree 100%

Congratulations! :thumbsup

Sagi.....she has always been insured.

Congrats!

Holly... the us health care is f***** up, Anyway, congrats!!!! Your baby is the most important now!!! I wish her all the best! :)

congart to you

Congrats!

Just be happy for the couple and baby and dont make this about what country you live it.

FFS

Take a look at this list please: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...mortality_rate

I am from Slovenia. We have what you call social health care. Even if you are unemployed homeless your health care is always free. See how higher we are on the list if you compare to US? Our health system is far from perfect, but it appears to be better than yours where people with no money simply die.

$160.000 to have a baby is just crazy.

Congrats on your beautiful baby

" Infant mortality rate (IMR) is the number of newborns dying under a year of age divided by the number of live births during the year times 1000. The infant mortality rate is also called the infant death rate. It is the number of deaths that occur in the first year of life for 1000 live births. "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_mortality

Infant mortality has a lot to do with health care.


Anyway congrats on your new baby. That bill is insane but compared to the life that's not important. I had a similar situation although much much worse as far as what the bill would have been but luckily it was all covered.

If you had half a clue you'd know why they put new borns on both parents bare chests :2 cents:

Congratulations on the arrival of your beautiful daughter.

Too bad you're part of a "health care for profit" situation though.

Congrats on the new addition

120k is reasonable to you?

No it's not and there is not a single "fact" that you can find anywhere that will prove that point. Obviously health care here is better then many places but calling it the best in any way is pretty absurd especially when you consider that we pay more then any other nation.

LOL, cobra is a bad fucking joke. Rarely can anyone between jobs afford to make cobra payments for even a few months. For most people cobra costs more then their mortgage payment.

That's funny to you? It's called skin to skin contact it's what you do when you have a premature baby.

America is the land of the free, as long as you can pay!

Why? I have no clue about kids.

congratulations on the new born

160k is outrageous. Who was the doctor? M.D. House?!

Congrats

Makes me wonder what the $48K (in 1987) it cost for myself and my youngest son would be if it were now. I was in for 17 days (c section and then 10 days later an abdominal surgery to find and repair a spot in my intestine that got clipped during the C-section). My son was in for 21 days total. At 7 days of age he developed spinal meningitis and had a staph hominis in his spinal column. Between he and I, if we'd have gone home on time one or the other of us would have ended up dead. I would have thought I was just feeling bad from the c-section and that he just had a bit of a fever.

You're defending a system that charges someone 160k to have a baby? Stupid fucks like you are the reason this shit happens to begin with.

What happens if you decide you don't want to pay?

I realize you picked one of the best hospitals, but many health insurance plans I would have thought would cover all costs. At my job we just switched HMO's after 20 years...my boss said that they raised the fees $100 more a month per employee, so we are switching. Funny how healthcare is going up due to Obama's BS. :(

I doubt that alot, our daughter was born 6 weeks early and she had to spend 2 weeks in SCBU ( Special Care Baby Unit ) as she had trouble breathing on her own.

We only lived 3 minutes away from the hospital but they gave us a room ( like a self contained flat ) so we could stay over at the hospital when ever we wanted. They always had 1 nurse per baby 24 hours a day watching over her and the machines she was hooked up to.

Now she is 14 months old and full of energy

Total cost = £20 box of chocolates ( they aren't allowed flowers because its a sterlie ward)

Ohh by the way man congrats

Congrats on the baby, you can never really put a price on that :)


As mentioned, you can definitely get that price knocked down...
I have 5 kids and I don't think mine cost that much combined...whew, I would have had a heart attack...

she is cute.

So, what you are saying, lumenos, is that you are fucking rich. I love that. Congratulations.

Congrats! We are 9 days away from one too.

Very exciting

I am currently uninsured.

I tried to apply for a $650 a month policy, but was denied for a variety of reasons, including that I had a pre-existing condition (I have a non-lethal skin condition - Psoriasis, which was fully covered when I was working for a large corporation).

Since I am self-employed (and made over $300,000 last year), I am apparently not worthy of insurance, even though I am totally willing to pay in a year, more than I have ever received in treatment in my entire life.

Another reason I was denied was because I visited a hospital within the last year to ensure that a minor puncture wound to my hand was not infected.

They cleaned my wound in 30 minutes (most of that time spent filling out paperwork and waiting for attention), and declared it not infected, but even though I have never spent a night in a hospital for anything in my life, they declared that they could not insure me, simply due to going in once to ensure that I did not have a hand infection, which I did not.

BS like this has to change... :mad:

As I understand it, a socialized medical system ensures to some extent that costs are contained and everyone is covered (not necessarily for free), rather than arbitrarily being denied coverage (even if you are able/willing to pay for it).

ADG

ADG

Wow that's crazy....totally crazy....in Israel it costs $0 to have a baby no matter what. fucking nuts.

congrats on the baby though :)

in Canada, you pay via taxes and some small heathcare fees (very small). but whatever you need, you get. i can go to the hospital right now, and not shell out anything. in fact, i was just there today because of a problem with my foot. no issues at all.

I'm just going to say congrats and leave it at that:thumbsup

would have thought nicu would have been covered under your health insurance.... not maternity

i didn't say it didn't have anything to do with health care, i said it has more to do with the level of health of a nation.

from the link you provided-

IMR is also a useful indicator of a country's level of health or development, and is a component of the physical quality of life index.

more from wiki, since you are referencing them-

The infant mortality rate (IMR) is often used as an indicator of the level of health in a country.

it was a tongue-in-cheek comment.



again, i didn't say it is SUPERIOR, i said it is the best and that is true. i will explain. there are, what, ~200 countries? the quality of care provided in the u.s. is comparable to 5 or so other countries, that makes the quality of care provided in the top 2%, certainly you can admit being in the top 2 percentile is the best.



please reread the comment, i said that "while the system is fucked, the level of care provided is the best." my saying the system is fucked is not defending the system, certainly someone so quick to call others stupid fucks can see that.

160k - LOL WTF!

160k to do what we were put here to do naturally. Incredible. Greed at its finest.

Congrats on your new born.

congrats with that! Thanks!

Thanks Les, I enjoy your posts LOL

Cool Rob, best of luck!!! Boy or girl?

congrats