Prenatal care cost

Basics and guides

This specific type of care refers to the series of visits performed either by a doctor(s) or midwife(s) in the course of the woman's pregnancy in order to keep constant check of the mother-to-be, as well as her yet unborn child, for the purpose of making sure that the pregnancy as such is most successfully and satisfactorily completed. The role of this specific type of care is to provide a doctor with an insight into the pregnancy, but also to enable him/her to notice any possible complications and potential problematic issues that may arise and that may hold a harmful potential that can disrupt the otherwise normal pace and course of pregnancy.

In the course of the initial six months of the pregnancy, the visits in question are highly advisable and necessary on a monthly basis, it must be emphasized. As the pregnancy progresses, so does the pace of visits in terms of their frequency. This means that the visits need to be paid each two weeks in the course of the seventh and the eighth month, and each week once the woman reaches her ninth month.Care 'tabs'

Having the financial side to pregnancy in mind, it must be said that the overall costs of the prenatal care during a typical pregnancy amount to 2.000 US dollars. What is covered under the aforementioned sum are approximately 12 visits from the doctor – each being around 100 to 200 US dollars, together with the needed blood tests, urinalysis and one ultrasound (minimum), which is in the most cases performed somewhere around the 20th week. Given the importance of pregnancy as such has, insurance tends to cover the costs of the prenatal care in the greatest majority of cases. In addition, if a woman has joined a group health insurance plan even after getting pregnant, the health insurance will cover the costs of prenatal care nevertheless. One important thing to bear in mind is that certain individual health insurance plans are entitled to view pregnancy as a pre-existing condition, thus not providing financial coverage for the delivery in case a woman has taken up one in the course of her pregnancy.

Now coming to the actual costs, those women who are already insured will need to put aside either a sum below 200 dollars, or a couple of thousand dollars in case deductible is high, or there have occurred certain unexpected complications in the course of the pregnancy. In the case of a private insurance, they are known to cover around 87% of the costs for prenatal care.