A few years ago, personal finance writer Ester Bloom, faced with a four-figure health-insurance deductible and a narrow network of doctors to choose from, attempted to price out how much giving birth to her younger child would cost her. It turned out to be an all but impossible task.
I thought about Bloom on Wednesday, when reviewing a Twitter dispute between Bernie Sanders and former Trump administration official Nikki Haley over the high cost of giving birth in the United States. The argument originated earlier this month, when Sanders tweeted, "In the United States it costs, on average, $12,000 to have a baby.