My baby is born premature
A NICU admission. This is the single most variable bill in American healthcare.
Typical US price before insurance
This is an allowed amount — the price actually negotiated with insurers, not the inflated list price. Source: Health Care Cost Institute — NICU use and spending (2021).
Range shown is the 10th to 90th percentile. The highest-acuity (Level IV) NICU stays average over $128,000.
No Medicare benchmark exists for this. Medicare recorded zero newborn-intensive-care discharges in 2024 — it covers people over 65. A rate exists on paper, but it is never paid, so we don't pretend it's a benchmark.
What you'd actually pay
Where you live
The national average price.
State prices from RAND's hospital price study — how much your state's hospitals charge private insurers relative to Medicare. This is a statewide price level, not a per-procedure state price. Maryland isn't shown: it sets hospital rates for all payers, so the comparison doesn't apply there.