A woman revealed a hospital billed her $50,000 for her baby's birth in a viral TikTok video
- A California mother was billed more than $50,000 by the hospital where she delivered her baby.
- Shannon Mayor shared the bill in a viral TikTok, adding that she was responsible for paying $250.
A California woman went viral on TikTok after she revealed she was billed more than $50,000 by the hospital where she gave birth to her baby.
In the fall of 2020, Shannon Mayor quit her job in the tech industry to start a small business when she found out she was pregnant, prompting her to search for "the best insurance I can get," she said in a phone interview.
"To be honest, it was very stressful having to switch insurances and then also having to switch insurances a week before my baby was born to my husband's insurance," Mayor told Insider. "Insurance is complicated. It's not easy in this country to figure out, and you can be screwed if you don't, you know, really think ahead."
Mayor said she stayed in a private room at the hospital for a week and told Insider she felt "a lot of gratitude towards my hospital stay, my doctor, and the care I received."
"They took amazing care of my baby," she said.
Earlier this week, Mayor, who lives with her husband and now five-month-old son in northern California, got the hospital bill, which showed her insurance plan paid $50,816.02 for the costs of the birth. Mayor was responsible for paying $250, according to the bill.
Her surprise at the total amount prompted her to pull out her phone and show it to her followers in a video on TikTok, which garnered more than 8 million views as of Friday.
"When you think about the average person, who has $50,000 sitting around to have a baby?" Mayor told Insider in reaction to the bill. "That's like a down payment on a house in some places."
She added: "I was grateful that I have insurance. A lot of people aren't that fortunate in this country to have really good insurance like I had, and without it, it would have cost a lot more likely to have my baby. Not a lot of people have access to that kind of insurance, so I felt a lot of gratitude in that moment."
People in the comments of Mayor's viral video also were also awestruck by the hospital bill and some shared their own birth stories and subsequent hospital bills. Some commenters noted the difference in how the costs of childbirth are dealt with in other countries, particularly in Europe.
One commenter said their daughter was in the NICU for two months, resulting in a final bill of about $1.5 million. TikToker @usa.mom.in.germany, a US expatriate mother living in Germany, shared her own response to Mayor's video, saying she paid a little over $50 USD to give birth to her baby abroad.
"I think it's cool that it's sparked a lot of conversation about universal health care. We have a lot of people coming in from other countries talking about their experiences," Mayor told Insider in response to the video's comments. "Reading the comments, hearing people's stories, it's definitely been really eye-opening and helped me realize just how many different perspectives exist about healthcare and access to it."
In the wake of her newfound viral fame, Mayor told Insider she hopes her video prompts people "to really question our systems and how things are working."
"I think the biggest thing is getting out and voting, being vocal about changes you want to happen," she said. "And then of course, talking to friends and family, encouraging them to vote, and encouraging other people to really start to look and see the inequalities that exist here in our country with healthcare, especially in comparison to so many other countries around the world."