Martin, a former art gallery manager who is starting graduate school in the fall. “I feel like I’m in a used-car lot,” said Ms.
Midway through her pregnancy, she fought for a deep discount on a $935 bill for an ultrasound, arguing that she had already paid a radiologist $256 to read the scan, which took only 20 minutes of a technician’s time using a machine that had been bought years ago. “I was like, How could you not know this? You’re a hospital.” Martin called her local hospital inquiring about the price of maternity care the finance office at first said it did not know, and then gave her a range of $4,000 to $45,000. So the couple had to approach the nine months that led to the birth of their daughter in May like an extended shopping trip though the American health care bazaar, sorting through an array of maternity services that most often have no clear price and - with no insurer to haggle on their behalf - trying to negotiate discounts from hospitals and doctors. Martin, 31, and her husband, Mark Willett, are both professionals with health insurance, her current policy does not cover maternity care. To each offer, she had one gnawing question: “How much is that going to cost?” Seven months pregnant, at a time when most expectant couples are stockpiling diapers and choosing car seats, Renée Martin was struggling with bigger purchases.Īt a prenatal class in March, she was told about epidural anesthesia and was given the option of using a birthing tub during labor.
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