Hospital indemnity coverage helps prepare employees for childbirth expenses

Babies and bills: The happiest of events can also trigger a mountain of unexpected expenses for even the most prepared parents.

Nationally, the out-of-pocket costs of having a baby can be high. While an uncomplicated vaginal delivery demands $2,854 on average, parents pay an average of $3,214 out of pocket for a cesarean birth.¹ And that’s assuming there are no immediate complications for the newborn or the mother.

Not all parents face the same costs

Meanwhile, parents who are racial minorities face unique sets of risks and associated costs. Hispanic and Black mothers and families face greater risks for both health and finances. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that while the overall chance of a woman in the U.S. dying in childbirth is 32.9 per 3,664,292 live births, that rate is more than double (69.9) for Black women.² Black families also have the toughest time covering medical bills, with 16.8% struggling to pay. More than 13% of Hispanic families struggle to pay medical bills.³

Risk factors for both mothers and babies are shifting and escalating. Teen birthrate is at an all-time low, but the birthrate for women in their late 30s and older is slowly but steadily rising.⁴ And of the 3.66 million babies who arrive annually in the U.S., according to a 2023 report from the National Center for Health Statistics, just over 10% were born preterm.⁴

Costs of childbirth go beyond the hospital

The frequency and intensity of services associated with pregnancy and childbirth can lead to considerable out-ofpocket expenses for new parents.¹ And all of that is just to get the baby delivered and home.

Even as they are paying for the cost of care, parents pay about $16,000 in the baby’s first year for necessities such as diapers (disposables cost $76 a month).⁵ And breastfeeding isn’t free: It takes about $571 to pay for a pump and supplies that enable a mother to continue nursing while returning to work.⁵

As a business leader, you can’t take away all the stresses the new parents in your workforce are facing. The sleepless nights, the new wealth of worries, the uncertainty—those are going to be a part of your employees’ lives for a while. But what you can do is offer them coverage that can help protect them from the high costs of health care, including their new bundle of joy. To learn more about how you can help protect your workforce, contact your Aflac benefits advisor today.

Are you interested in offering hospital indemnity insurance to your employees? Contact your Aflac benefits advisor or visit Aflac.com/business.