A preterm infant's NICU stay can cost $7.2 million. Your health plan's $5,000 out-of-pocket maximum means you pay that cap, not the full bill. These rare catastrophic cases, not common illnesses, are what's driving healthcare costs up.
Newborn infant care. This is going to be a preemie baby situation. Average, $500,000. Highest cost was $7.2 million, right? So a preemie baby is going to— you're going to be $500,000 to $1 million like that when you go in the NICU. Hemophilia, blood disorders, average $400,000. The highest, $3.6 million. So the highest claim was $3.6 million, but on average about $400,000. The third one here, these are birth defects, you know, $300,000. And then we start hitting the cancers where you're— see, leukemia, your plan is going to be paying about $300,000. So when these type of situations are going on and you've got a $5,000 maximum out-of-pocket and you're like, okay, they're treating me and spending $500,000. I'm at $5,000. When you start looking at those numbers and your healthcare is capped at that number, you know, that, that is working. It's painful, but it is working in these situations. It's this type of stuff that's, that's really driving healthcare costs, not necessarily strep throat, ear infections, and those type things.
