HOW MUCH DELIVERING YOUR BUB COSTS:
How much a Geelong birth costs you
IT’S widely acknowledged that raising a child is an expensive endeavour but the bills can pile up before you leave hospital, depending on where you choose to give birth.
Geelong now has three hospitals offering maternity services with costs for admission to deliver your bundle of joy ranging from nothing to $8200.
At Geelong hospital, the public offering, out-ofpocket costs may be non existent while uninsured women wanting to have their baby at St John of God could expect to pay $5800 for a four-night stay, excluding obstetrician costs.
Self-funded patients wanting to have their baby at Geelong’s newest hospital, Epworth, would pay a fee of $8270 for four nights in a private room for vaginal birth or up to five nights for a caesarean birth, with additional nights available at $1215 per day.
These figures do not include the fees for an obstetrician, paediatrician, anaesthetist and out-ofpocket costs for pathology, pharmacy and medical imaging.
At Epworth Geelong, adult intensive care is charged at $4055 per day and special care nursery admission for a baby $1240 per day.
Self-funded patients wishing to give birth at St John of God or Epworth would be required to pay the estimated fees and admission costs prior to admission.
Those with private health insurance giving birth at Geelong’s private hospitals would only pay an excess figure dependant on their level of cover.
A Medibank report for the 2016 financial year revealed of the top 10 highest benefits paid for hospital care, six were for neonatal.
The single highest payment made by Medibank for a member was more than $430,000 for the care of a newborn infant.
Last year the average total cost paid by Medibank for the birth of a child was $9421, with an average of $484 out of pocket for the member.
This figure excludes the out-of-pocket costs incurred by the expectant mother before her admission to hospital.
According to nib claims data almost 3000 private admissions were made by nib customers for pregnancy-related services in 2016. Of these more than half had no out-of-pocket expenses.
The total hospital admission-related charges paid by nib for customers giving birth privately generally ranged between $6600 and $13,493.
The range for out-ofpocket costs paid by the member was between $0 and $1632.