Mr. Connor: As the following article points out, approximately 100 million Americans have medical debt, and 12 percent have medical debt at least in part due to pregnancy or childbirth. And the family at the center of the story decided that their family was big enough at three years old. Elsewhere, U.S. population projections have been revised further downwards.
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— Aziz Sunderji (@AzizSunderji) May 10, 2024
By Noam N. Levey, Senior Correspondent, KFF Health News. He previously worked for the Los Angeles Times for 17 years, his last 12 years as the paper’s national health correspondent based in Washington, DC. KFF Health News.
Heather Crivillare was rushed to the operating room for an emergency C-section with a month to go before her due date.
Doctors hospitalized the first-time mother, a high school teacher in rural Illinois, after she developed sometimes life-threatening high blood pressure during her pregnancy. After that, Krivilare’s blood pressure skyrocketed and the baby’s heart rate slowed. “It was scary,” Crivillare said.
She gave birth to a healthy daughter. But then another challenge awaited him. With thousands of dollars in medical debt, Krivilare and her husband struggled for nearly a year to keep collectors at bay.
The Krivillales ended up using nine payment plans while juggling nearly $5,000 in bills.
“There were days when it really felt like a full-time job,” Crivillare said. “I answer the phone after I put the baby to bed. I set up one payment plan, and then I get a new bill that afternoon. Then I have to set up another one.”
Krivilare’s pregnancy may have been more dramatic than others. But for millions of new parents, medical debt is now as much a feature of having a child as long nights and dirty diapers.
About 12% of the 100 million U.S. adults with health insurance debt report that at least some of it is due to pregnancy or childbirth. KFF poll.
These people are more likely to report having had to take on extra work, change their living situations, or make other sacrifices.
Overall, women ages 18 to 35 who have given birth within the past year and a half are twice as likely to have medical debt than women of the same age who have not given birth recently. KFF research Found what was done for this project.
Eileen Atwood, a Rhode Island obstetrician and gynecologist, said, “I feel sorry for my patients because I know they want the best for their pregnancy,” and said she feels sorry for pregnant women who are worried about taking on debt. He said he sees it on a daily basis.
“They very often come to work or to the hospital with school debt due to the financial pressures of starting their working lives,” Atwood said. “They have real choices to make, and those real choices can include choosing not to receive certain services, medications, or things they need to care for themselves or their unborn child.”
best plan
Ms. Krivilare and her husband, Andrew, who is also a teacher, anticipated some of the costs.
The young couple settled in Jacksonville in part because the rural area, less than two hours north of St. Louis, was a place where two public school teachers could build a home. They made aggressive saves. They bought life insurance.
And before she became pregnant in 2021, Krivilare enrolled in the most robust health insurance plan she could, paying higher premiums to minimize her deductibles and out-of-pocket costs.
Then, two months before her due date, Krivilare learned she had pre-eclampsia. Her pregnancy will no longer be routine. Mr. Krivilare was prescribed blood pressure medication, and doctors at a local hospital advised him to rest at a large medical center in Springfield, about 55 miles away.
“When I was asked to take an ambulance from Jacksonville to Springfield, I remember thinking… ‘I’m never going to get back on my feet financially with this,'” she said. I want you to be safe.”
Krivilare remained alone in the hospital for several weeks as visitors were restricted due to coronavirus precautions. Meanwhile, her doctors steadily increased her medication while monitoring the condition of her fetus. It was “the scariest month of her life,” she said.
After my daughter Rita was born, my fear turned to relief. Because the baby was so small, he had to spend about two weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit. However, she had no complications. “We were incredibly lucky,” Crivillare said.
When she and Rita finally get home, a pile of medical bills awaits them. One was already overdue.
Crivilale quickly worked out payment plans with hospitals, anesthesiologists, surgeons and laboratories in Jacksonville and Springfield. Some providers asked hundreds of dollars per month. Some have made monthly payments of $20 or $25. Some urged Krivilare to apply for a new credit card to pay his bills.
“I felt like I was just constantly on the phone and in a daze while all these different people were collecting money,” she recalled. “That was a nightmare.”
Big costs, big results
Crivilales’ bill was not unusual. Currently, parents with private health insurance must pay an average of more than $3,000 in medical bills related to pregnancy and childbirth that are not covered by insurance. University of Michigan researchers found.
Families with newborns who require a stay in the neonatal intensive care unit have even higher out-of-pocket costs, averaging $5,000. And for one in 11 of these families, the researchers found that medical costs related to pregnancy and childbirth exceeded her $10,000.
“This forces families to make very difficult tradeoffs,” says Michelle Moniz, a University of Michigan obstetrician-gynecologist who worked on the study. “Even though I have insurance, I am still getting extremely high bills.”
National polls show that millions of these households end up in debt, sometimes with devastating consequences.
Nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults with debt related to pregnancy or childbirth have cut back on spending on food, clothing and other necessities, a KFF poll found. .
About half have postponed buying a home or delaying their own or their children’s education.
These burdens have led to calls for limits on out-of-pocket medical expenses related to pregnancy and childbirth.
In Massachusetts, state Sen. Cindy Friedman proposed bill All of these bills are free of copays, deductibles, and other costs. This would be similar to federal rules that require health plans to cover recommended preventive services, such as annual physicals, at no cost to patients. “What we want…is healthy children, and that starts with healthy mothers,” Friedman said. Massachusetts health insurers have warned that the proposal would increase costs, but an independent state analysis estimates that the bill would only increase monthly premiums by $1.24.
harsh lesson
Krivillare said she wants new parents to take a breather before paying off medical debt.
“No one is properly prepared to deal with a situation like that when a baby is born,” she said, noting that college graduates can afford this much time off. “When I graduated with my college degree, I said, ‘Emerging adults, it’s going to take you six months to figure out your life. So I’m going to give you a six-month grace period before your student loans. I was like, “If you do that, you can get a job.”
Rita is now 2 years old. With the help of Krivilare’s side business selling resources for teachers online, her family juggled a payment plan and paid off her medical debt within a year.
However, last year Rita had a recurrence of ear infections that required surgery, leaving her family with thousands of dollars in new medical bills and now back in debt.
Krivilare said the stress made her reconsider whether to see a doctor, even for Rita. And she added that she and her husband were determined that their family was complete.
“For us, we can’t have another child,” she said. “We just hope we can put these high bills behind us and give (Rita) the life we want to give her.”
