New mom’s hospital bill of $50,000 for having her baby is driving people crazy

A woman who have birth to a child was stunned after being handed an astonomical bill at the hospital. Shannon Mayor shared the bill on TikTok as she couldn't believe how expensive it was. “Holy sh*t you guys I just got our hospital bill from my baby’s birth…” reads the on-screen text of the video. The American healthcare system is deeply flawed and Mayor's hospital is just one of many examples. She was charged a whopping $50,816.02 for giving birth to a baby but luckily, for her insurance took care of majority of that. Mayor had to only cough up $250 of the bill as her insurance plan through her old employer covered the rest, reported God.DailyDot. "Wasn’t expecting the total to be that high," read the caption fo the video.

It is estimated that only 49% of Americans have health insurance through work, which leaves a majority of the population vulnerable to piling up medical debt. It is stunning that something as normal as basic as giving birth to a baby should cost $50k. The high costs of medical care in America is forcing the people to avoid seeking medical care when they are sick. One video showed a 9-month pregnant woman in labor walking to the hospital after her car breaking down. She didn't want to call the ambulance, well awae of the costs of doing that.  

The comments beneath Mayor's video reflected the people's experience with the healthcare system. One person pointed out the hypocrisy of a government that's working to ban abortion.“So banning abortion but then charging to have the baby,” wrote on person. People from other countries are always shocked by the medical costs in the US. “You shouldn’t even have to pay $250, wrote one person, before adding, "America is a joke.” One person called for a overhaul. The fact that people still don't believe in universal healthcare is wild. Literally, every other first world country has it, and there is America."

It's not just the people who think the system is broken but doctors as well. Andrew Carroll, MD, the Board Director of the American Academy of Family Physicians recently tweeted about it. "I think I'm finally broken," wrote Andrew Carroll, MD. "Insurance company denied a CT Chest on a young woman with post-Coronavirus syndrome. And while describing why I wanted it, I broke down in tears. It's too much. We want to do the right thing, and stupid rules keep us from being effective for our patients." He also stated it was important to not get desensitized by the system. "Crying is human, and I accept it. I do not want to lose my humanity through all of this. Our patients need us to be strong guides through this horrible time, but they also need us to be compassionate humans with the heart and mind to help them through it," he wrote. A nurse, Christy, recently took to TikTok, calling out hospitals for abusing the system. "Patients are going into crippling debt. Medical debt is the number one cause of bankruptcy in the United States. Yet, nobody is holding these hospitals accountable, and I am tired of it,” said Christy.

According to a study by Stanford, Americans are saddled with at least $140 billion in outstanding medical debt. “It’s a really striking fact that the places with the highest levels of medical debt have experienced far smaller declines in medical debt, whereas the places that expanded Medicaid and were doing relatively okay to begin with have benefited the most from the expansion,” said Stanford economist Neale Mahoney. “When you think about financial distress — debt collectors calling and knocking on doors of households — our research shows that more than half the time now, it is about medical debt,” Mahoney says. “That’s a pretty stunning and uniquely American phenomenon.”