‘America is a joke’: TikToker reveals hospital bill for baby’s birth in viral video, sparking debate

A new mom revealed what the hospital bill for her baby’s birth would’ve been without insurance in viral TikTok.

Captioned “I wasn’t expecting the total to be that high,” the video got over 6.7 million views and 835,200 likes since being posted on Monday. The 12-second video shows a hospital bill listing what her insurance plan paid for, what she owes, and what the total would’ve been without insurance.

According to the bill, with insurance she only had to pay $250.00 out of pocket for the hospitalization and delivery, while her plan paid $50,816.02. This means that without her insurance, she would’ve had to pay over $51,000 just to deliver a baby.

The TikToker, @shannonmayor, or Shannon Mayor, clarified who her insurance provider is in the comments.

“Insurance details since I saw a lot of comments asking… this is blue cross blue shied PPO in California. I got it through my old job,” Mayor said. “We had a few complications and I still get sad that I didn’t have the birth I hoped for but I’m so grateful for my healthy baby.”

CBS news reports that it costs an average of $26,380 to give birth in a California hospital, which is 75% more than the national average. Moreover, California is one of only two states to charge over $10,000 just for room and board.

Many of the 13,890 comments bemoaned the cost in America for an essential service like bringing life into the world.

“Mine was 300,000 after a month tay in NICU. I just threw the bill away. Who do I look like?? Bill Gates?,” @tlitten32 said.

“So banning abortion but then charging to have the baby….,” @aaliyahjones wrote.

“My daughter was in NICU for 2 months. Our final bill was about 1.5 million. We paid little over 1k,” @pennuk22 commented.

The Daily Dot reached out to Mayor for comment.

Editor’s note: Due to a technical error, our original message to this TikToker may not have been delivered.