The United States is often criticized for its health care system. Even with insurance, the costs are sometimes exorbitant, and some families have a difficult time affording care. Some people will go without medication or seeing a doctor to avoid mounting medical bills. But there are some cases where you simply can’t avoid going to a doctor, particularly regarding children.
Hanna Castle gave birth to quadruplets prematurely in November 2021. Like most, the babies were born in a hospital, and when she received the bill, she was shocked. She shared a video on her TikTok channel, @hannacastle, about the cost of her babies’ births, and these kids are truly worth millions.
More from CafeMom: The Doctor Wasn’t Even Present When My Wife Gave Birth & Still Billed Us $4,200
Castle and her husband had to make big changes.
When the 24-year-old Ohio woman found out she was expecting four babies at once, she knew things were going to have to change dramatically for her family. She told Good Morning America it made sense for her to quit her job and apply for Medicaid.
“At 16 weeks pregnant, I decided to quit my job to get some of that assistance because there was no other way,” Castle explained of the financial decision. “I moved my mom in with us to kind of help financially for the first year and see how the kids were going to be.”
The babies were premature, and the bills began piling up.
Her babies, Atlas, Dominic, Magnolia, and Morgan, were born at 28 weeks, and each had an extended stay in the neonatal intensive care unit, the mother explained in her viral video. Her first baby, Atlas, had the shortest stay, 64 days, and his bill was $714,747.15. The next baby, Magnolia, had the second-shortest stay, at 74 days. And her bill was $728,625.56. Her son Morgan, who came home at 86 days old, racked up a bill of $976,415.69. The final baby to come home, Dominic, who was in the NICU for 147 days, cost the family $1,626,139.55.
If you don’t have your calculator ready, that’s OK. She totaled it for us, and the family’s NICU stay came in at a whopping $4,045,927.95. And no, that doesn’t account for delivery or any of the mom’s care during her stay.
Castle said it's hard to prepare financially for children.
She told Good Morning America that when you’re contemplating having a family, there are a lot of financial factors to consider, not the least of which is insurance and what it will cover.
“In the United States of America, it’s kind of hard to know, OK, you’re going into this situation, my insurance is not going to cover X, Y, Z, or it has to be this substantial for them to actually cover it,” she said.
Katie Martin, president and CEO of the nonprofit Health Care Cost Institute, concurred and told Good Morning America that in the US the cost of having a baby has increased in the last five years.
“Our research shows that for people who get insurance through work, the average cost of having a baby is about $24,000 and that’s from the prenatal period to the postpartum period,” Martin told the morning news show, referencing a May 2023 study by the institute. “For childbirth itself, the average is closer to $13,000, though that varies considerably, whether it’s a vaginal birth or a C-section, that number has gone up over time, not dramatically differently from how healthcare costs in general had been increasing.”
The mom's TikTok shocked a lot of people.
This person did the math: “to put this in perspective.. it would take $500 a month for 675 years to pay this off.”
This person had some shady advice: “just don’t pay it.”
And a lot of people really just couldn’t understand.
“Basically, what happens when you can’t pay this? Like, what does it affect?? I don’t understand how anyone can live,” one person wrote.
“This is ridiculous, no other words could express the disappointment. When other country’s have free healthcare,” someone else added.
More from CafeMom: US Mom Gives Birth to 1 in 60 Million Quintuplets, a Son & Rare Identical Quadruplet Girls
Castle isn't the only one.
Plenty of other people also have received crazy-high hospital bills.
This person was shocked at her bill: “I had a pretty normal birth, but I had a 4th degree tear. I stayed for 3 days at the hospital. Nothing crazy happened 230k. Wild.”
Sadly, not all babies survive, and the parents still have hefty bills to pay, like this person who wrote, “My son passed 5 weeks into his NICU stay. A month later I got a 2.5 million dollar bill.”
And this one: “Twins .. premies .. twin B died at 22 days , twin A stayed in the NICU for 30 days .. from pregnancy confirm to baby leaving the hospital $3.2 mil.”
Thankfully, Castle’s babies are all doing well and they are one big, happy, expensive family.
