It’s my understanding that there was a point in history when the advent of insurance was good—more specifically, good for babies born prematurely. Before this point, medical interventions or premature babies was largely unexplored, and everything hospitals could do was very expensive—too expensive for most families to afford.
Today, Everything hospitals can do is more expensive than too expensive, but insurance changed the game. Health insurance meant premature babies got treatment and hospitals got paid. Hospitals getting paid meant they had money to invest in research.
We live in a world where babies can survive outside the womb just past the halfway mark of a pregnancy. We also live in a world where a mom of twins born just past that halfway mark will amass millions of dollars in medical bills.
The thing about million-dollar miracle babies is that the companies that are supposed to foot the bill are less than thrilled about it. In my very rudimentary research, it seems that some companies are worse than others when it looks for ways to deny claims.
This all leaves me wondering if we haven’t somehow regressed, are we back in a world where the cost of intervention is just too high? And if it is, does it matter?
Even if we end up financially ruined from all of this, I wouldn’t make a different decision about intervening. No mom would.