It’s a boy!
The Duchess of Cambridge is officially a mother of three after giving birth to a royal baby boy earlier this week. All eight pounds and seven ounces of HRH Prince of Cambridge (whose name has not yet been announced) were welcomed in the Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital in London, according to Kensington Palace.
“The Duke of Cambridge was present for the birth,” read a tweet from Kensington Palace. “Her Royal Highness and her child are both doing well.”
Fifth in line to the throne, the new prince’s arrival came at a lower cost than one might expect for a royal baby delivery – at least when compared to the cost of a similar delivery in the US.
For 24 hours in a deluxe room and a non-Caesarean delivery in 2015, the Lindo Wing charged £5,670 and that’s for luxurious maternity ward accommodations. the average cost of a normal delivery or a planned caesarean in the UK is just £1,755. If complications arise, it is still only £2,582 on average.
In the US, the average fee for a delivery without complications (and without a luxury ensuite and or deluxe room) costs $10,808 (£7,749) – which can increase to an estimated $30,000 when considering care given before and after pregnancy. That’s more than the delivery cost of both a royal baby and a non-royal baby in the UK.
According to findings by the International Federation of Health Plans, the US leads in total average hospital and physician costs for a delivery without complications. Delivering a baby costs $7,751 in Switzerland and $5,312 in Australia. Spain and South Africa both cost less than $2,000, charging $1,950 and $1,271 respectively.
Even though insurance typically covers most of the cost, American parents can still face a bill of roughly $3,000, while many Europeans have free maternity care.
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