Mississippi 'Personhood' Law Could Cause Legal Mayhem, Experts Warn

If my baby were in the NICU fighting for his/her life, I would pay whatever I needed to pay to give him every opportunit­y to live. I would also put his life in God's hands, and leave it to God's will.

These are the very things that people said made Glenn Beck crazy, because he said we would be having these discussion­s, and here we are!

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These things didn't make Glenn Beck crazy; he was born that way.

And these discussion­s have been taking place for decades.  Because it's about money, and who is going to pay.  

You say that if your baby was in a NICU, you would pay whatever it took to give him every opportunit­y to live.  Do you have any idea what the average cost is to treat an infant in NICU?  For babies born between 32 and 34 weeks gestation the average is about $31,000.  Babies born earlier than 32 weeks cost even more. For babies weighing between 501 and 750 grams, treatment costs average $89,564.  

That doesn't include the extra costs associated with post-hospi­tal, and for raising what is possibly going to be a 'special needs' child throughout his lifetime, i.e., special education and other medical needs.

Medical costs for a premature baby are much, much greater than they are for a healthy newborn. In 2005, preterm birth cost the United States at least $26.2 billion, or $51,600 for every infant born prematurel­y. The costs broke down as follows:

$16.9 billion (65 percent) for medical care
$1.9 billion (7 percent) for maternal delivery
$611 million (2 percent) for early interventi­on services
$1.1. billion (4 percent) for special education services
$5.7 billion (22 percent) for lost household and labor market productivi­ty

The average first-year medical costs, including both inpatient and outpatient care, were about 10 times greater for preterm infants ($32,325) than for full-term infants ($3,325).
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