Having a child is getting more and more expensive each year in the U.S. The cost of raising one kid into adulthood now totals hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to recent estimates from online lending marketplace LendingTree and other finance groups.
“No one should be surprised that costs have risen in recent years, but the type of growth we’ve seen in child care costs is on a whole other level,” Matt Schulz, LendingTree chief consumer finance analyst, said in a statement. “There are plenty of reasons for the growth, including inflation, growing labor costs and rising demand. However, whatever the reason, this growth is making an already challenging aspect of parenthood that much worse.”
But years before your child speaks, goes to soccer camp, or applies to colleges, just giving birth to them can break the bank. That’s true for some states more than others, according to data from non-profit FAIR Health. The database includes more than 46 billion commercial healthcare claim records.
The FAIR Health Cost of Giving Birth Tracker data, including costs paid out by both patients and their insurance companies, shows it’s even worse for new parents in Alaska, New York, New Jersey, Maine, and Vermont.
Isolated Alaska, where health costs are generally more expensive, has the highest average costs for both vaginal deliveries and C-sections, at estimates of about $29,000 and $39,500, respectively.
In the Lower 48, New York- and New Jersey-based vaginal deliveries at expensive hospitals may go for around $21,800. In Maine and Vermont, the C-sections cost more than $28,000. Notably, C-section surgeries cost more money, and are more complex procedures than vaginal deliveries.
Many factors are driving the disparities, FAIR Health’s Rachel Kent told Axios. Those include provider training levels, local salaries and the cost of living, malpractice insurance costs, and insurers’ bargaining power. There are also differences in costs for some racial groups, with Black and Hispanic people forking out more for maternal care than Asian and white people, according to research published earlier this year.
Of course, people with insurance typically fork out a fraction of the total amount paid. A 2022 Peterson-KFF analysis found that out-of-pocket costs range just over $2,800, on average.
Still, pricey hospital bills and other childcare costs are some of many reasons people are now choosing to forgo starting a family.
Earlier this year, the fertility rate in the U.S. plummeted to an all-time low, according to federal data.
Karen Guzzo, director of the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina, told The Associated Press that the trend seems tied to concerns about the ability to have money, insurance, and other resources needed to raise a child.
A previous study from researchers at New York’s Mount Sinai Health System found that some low-income families spent nearly 20 percent of their annual income on medical costs during the year of pregnancy and birthing.
“Worry is not a good moment to have kids,” and that’s why birth rates in most age groups are not improving, she said.
