Mom shares how having 4 babies resulted in a jaw-dropping $4 million hospital bill
Even if you have health insurance, receiving medical care in the U.S. is far too costly for so many Americans, and that includes the price tag just to give birth. But one Ohio mom might just take the cake, receiving a staggering bill of more than $4 million after delivering premature quadruplets back in 2021. And yes, we’re all wondering the same thing: how and why is that even possible?!
Mom Hanna Castle shared her story on TikTok in 2023, revealing that she delivered her four babies—Atlas, Dominic, Magnolia, and Morgan—at 28 weeks and one day via Cesarean section, with her babies requiring stays of varying lengths at two different NICUs. The stays ranged between 64 and 147 days, and Castle says in the clip that the itemized bill she received for $4,045,927.95 only covered the NICU stays, not the costs for labor and delivery.
The cheapest bill (for baby Alas, who required the shortest stay) totaled around $714,000, while baby Dominic amassed a bill for more than $1.6 million alone, with Castle showing some of the dozens of pages of cost breakdowns she received for her little ones.
Naturally, commenters wondered how anyone—let alone four brand new preemie babies, each with health concerns—could even begin to tackle a bill like that. Several commenters from Europe, specifically, expressed disbelief over the sheer lunacy of healthcare costs being so high. Others shared their own stories, with one dad writing: “My son passed 5 weeks into his NICU stay. A month later I got a 2.5 million dollar bill.” (Absolutely awful; truly unimaginable.)
In an interview with Good Morning America, Castle shared that her bills were paid in full thanks to Ohio Medicaid, for which she quit her job 16 weeks into her pregnancy in order to qualify for.
“At 16 weeks pregnant, I decided to quit my job to get some of that assistance because there was no other way,” she said. “If I would have been able to keep my job I would. I loved my job. I loved the company I worked for. I just think people nowadays are feeling like they can’t be prepared, you can’t be prepared. There’s not truly any assistance [in] childcare. I don’t think you can ever truly financially prepare.” Castle’s mom also moved in with the family for a year to help ease some of the burden.
That Castle had to quit a job she loved in order to qualify for benefits that would cover her babies’ medical bills is absolutely bananas, which is why she’s now advocating for other parents of NICU babies who are experiencing financial hardship as they navigate caring for their infants. It’s not a situation any parent should ever have to face, but slapping them with a bill for thousands (if not more!) at the end of it is downright shameful.
Thankfully, Castle’s babies are all doing well now, and she’s serving as a surrogate for another family, seemingly managing pregnancy and caring for four toddlers like an absolute champ. Women are pure magic, indeed.
