Costs of having a baby

[chazza14]

Oooooo What a good thing to do! I wish I had something to go by when I was embarking on my pregnancy journey...I just added up all my figures cause I wanted to know...and here it is.

Private Hospital and OB, vaginal delivery, Location: Perth, HBF was my fund.

Note - additionally- I had a GP visit and early scan to confirm pregnancy was not ectopic (sp?) Cost $160 medicare reimbursed $83.

Total Paid:
OB appts $2250
12 wk scan $165
20 wk scan $170
Hospy Delivery fee $3156
Private Rm with spouse 4 nights $1156
In Hospy Paed $410
Grand Total Paid: $7465

Total Reimbursed:
$1839 by Medicare and $4167 by HBF

Total out-of pocket $1460

Hi
Who was your ob and what hospital did you go to? Im with HBF also.
Thanks

[Lak1415]

Hello ladies,

I only have medicare cover, i'd be a private patient and elect my private doctor to deliver in a public hospital when i'm due because i'm having fibroids so cs is highly likely. I just wonder if anyone know the total cost I have to pay and to what extent Medicare cover in my case?
Appreciate much on your comments

[garfield13]

Would be dependant on obs charges and if you did need a csection but you would be looking at the $10,000 to 15,000 range

[withlovesiobhan]

Oh my gosh i'm a tad confused after reading through, so even if you have private health insurance there may still be some costs after giving birth, whats the point of having private health insurance then? When you could just go public at no cost :/

I am considering taking out private health insurance only for the fact that I want to be able to elect to have a caesarean if I freak out during pregnancy and feel like I cant give birth.

But it seems like a waste of money if I then don't choose to have a caesarean. Ugh!

[Rose&Aurelia]

I have private health

Cost of bub 1
2000 management fee for ob (450 back on Medicare)
80 per visit (70 ish back per visit via Medicare)
Epi 150 (phi covered)
5 day stay (phi covered)
1700 delivery fee (phi covered)
Lactational consult daily (phi covered)
Paed visit (Medicare and phi covered it)

Bub 2
Same as above but no epi as I went drug free.

[withlovesiobhan]

I have private health

Cost of bub 1
2000 management fee for ob (450 back on Medicare)
80 per visit (70 ish back per visit via Medicare)
Epi 150 (phi covered)
5 day stay (phi covered)
1700 delivery fee (phi covered)
Lactational consult daily (phi covered)
Paed visit (Medicare and phi covered it)

Bub 2
Same as above but no epi as I went drug free.

So is this what you had to pay out of your own pocket???

[Rose&Aurelia]

So is this what you had to pay out of your own pocket???

As in the gap fee? No they were the total amounts.
I only had to pay for the management fee and ob visits. The rest were charged to phi.

[garfield13]

Yes you will be out of pocket anywhere between $1000 - $6000 depending on obs charges and your cover
Public you are in 1-2 nights, private 4-5 nights

For me the care i received at my private hospital was a thousand times better than i would have received publicly and well worth the $5000 out of pocket

[withlovesiobhan]

Yes you will be out of pocket anywhere between $1000 - $6000 depending on obs charges and your cover
Public you are in 1-2 nights, private 4-5 nights

For me the care i received at my private hospital was a thousand times better than i would have received publicly and well worth the $5000 out of pocket

Gee thats a fair bit of money when you already pay for private health. :/

[garfield13]

It is, but for us really worth it. It really depends on what you are after & what your hospital options are.
For us the public hospital we would use you get a max 2 night stay, usually 1 (csec you will get 2-3 nights) and they can ask you to leave from 16hrs post birth if all is well. Very very high chance of shared room. Not seeing the same ob at all appts through pg, just who ever is working and very long waits for all pregnancy appts. Its a very busy maternity ward so the nurse are flat out.

The private hospital is a 4-5 night stay (1 night extra if csec) Only private rooms. Pick my ob and see only him during my pg. Very pro natural, non intervention and a breastfeeding friendly hospital & ob. The nurses/midwives are not flat out and the care received was 110% brilliant on all levels, including post birth help / queries

My milk did not come in with dd until day 3.5 days post birth and that is when i needed the most help with breast feeding (if I was in public I would have been home & I am pretty sure would have quit bf) The last day we were in hospital the nurses left us alone a fair amount unless we buzzed which was great as we were in our own little world in the room getting used to being parents but had the nurses right there when we needed them

We thought are going public the second time as the medcare rebate changed (we were only out of pocket $1800 the first pg) but the whole experienced we received privately made the whole new bay experience alot easier

So if you are worried about the costs I would research your hospital choices and see what they are like - some private hospitals are bad & public are better