While driving, I happened to hear an interview with a book author about the dramatic increase of per capital health care costs. A special commission appointed to look at skyrocketing medical costs in Massachusetts alone, has estimated that percapita health care spending in the state will rise from around $10,000 in 2010 to almost $18,000 by 2020! The author cited estimates that 1/3 of health care coverage is due to needless and/or superfluous procedures.
These figures came on the heels of the great debate about birth control coverage for women. Increasingly disturbed about the growing sentiment against female birth control coverage, along with the increasing sentiment against food stamps, welfare, and other "entitlement programs, I thought about the cost of pregnancy and giving birth.
Surely the cost of giving birth is a lot more than any birth control? So I did some research.
Turns out the AVERAGE cost of giving birth in the U.S. (in 2009) is about $7,600. (Click HERE for the source.) In cities, where the population is obviously more dense, the cost is much higher. In 2003, another source reported that U.S. hospitals charged an average of * $15,519 for a c-section. OF NOTE: in 1997, when I first joined Progress Software Corporation -- before the "pre-existing condition clause" enforced by Mass. health insurance policies was ruled illegal -- I personally spoke to a married woman who was pregnant when she switched jobs. She said she had to pay $15,000 out of pocket when she gave birth.
So, compared to the cost of birth control, not to mention the rising costs of child care and lack of the ability to guarantee child support for single mothers, this is kind of a no-brainer.
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