I’m working on a 100 year anniversary book (for a hospital group I work for) and they gave me folders full of old pictures. I came across this receipt from 1929:
Can you see those numbers?? The final total is $12! For having a baby!! Perhaps this caught my eye because we’re currently suffering from bill overload from Cannon’s birth – and there isn’t an item on there for $12 – not even the tylenol!
You want to know what $12 in 1929 would be worth today? $163 – 1262% inflation. My mom pointed out that this was during the depression so wages were probably lower than normal – so for kicks and giggles lets double the number to $24. That would be $326 today. That is a big difference from the bills I’ve been receiving. My epidural (totally normal, average, run of the mill epidural) alone was billed at $5000. Yes – there are three zeros behind that 5. And when I started to complain to Steve on how expensive it was he asked, “Would you go without the epidural to save the money? Think of all the projects in the house you could do for that amount. Is it really worth it?”
I didn’t have to spend more than 2 seconds contemplating my answer. Yes. I would spend that much again – call me crazy but its so worth it. A luxury they definitely didn’t have in 1929!
Want to know my favorite part of the bill – the stamp that says “paid” with a handwritten “Thank You” underneath it. Customer service doesn’t get better than that.
If it makes you feel any better I had my last baby with no epidural and I only stayed in the hospital one night instead of two and I swear it ended up costing me about the same as my previous baby at the same hospital. I don't know how that worked out and maybe I should have pushed harder to save more but maybe that will make you feel better, haha. 🙂
Oddly enough- it does make me feel a little better! Makes me realize that no matter what we do it's just going to be expensive!
Actually that was a few months before the Great Depression began.
College is the same.
Good point – I didn't look at the dates close enough. There's no doubt college is the same way.
With my first baby I got a bad epidural. The anesthesiologist injected air into my spinal fluid. Long story short, I was out for the count for about six weeks. My Mom was convinced I would never get an epidural again. She couldn't have been more wrong. Haha! It is definitely worth it 🙂
I guess that means a bad epidural is better than no epidural!
Holy cow! That is incredible! I'm sure it will just continue to go up. In fact, medicaid epidural reimbursements just got cut by 70%, but I'm sure they will cost the same (or more).
That's depressing…guess it's time to stop having kids! 🙂 It's just crazy to look at the cost difference in our four children in just 8 short years!
People think I'm joking when I call Tucker my "Million Dollar Baby"….
That makes me sick even to think about – he really is your million dollar baby. And even at that cost, he's totally worth it!