$1500 to not have a baby

I got a big fat bill from the hospital yesterday for my D&C.  My D&C that was on January 15th.  Six months ago.  $700 for the privilege to be reminded of the shittiest shit that ever happened to me.

I spent an obscene amount of time today figuring out why I was being billed again, since I have already paid about $500 for this same procedure, which covered 2 separate bills sent over the course of the past 6 months.  Turns out, they were separate bills for anesthesiology, hospital, and doctor.  And to make it all that much more complicated, neither me nor 3 people I spoke to could figure out why the doctor charge wasn't on file.  It wasn't until later that I realized one bill came from Cooper Institute (the RE I go to, and where the doctor who did my surgery is based) and one came from Cooper Hospital (where I had the surgery).  Total coincidence on the names.  I also had a completely separate bill for $300 for the additional surgery to remove the leftover tissue and fibroid.

I verified that they were billing me exactly to my yearly out of pocket maximum, so it's right, and I wound up paying it of course.  It just really left me with a bad taste in my mouth, for a few reasons.  Mainly, because I realized that I have now paid $1500 to NOT have a baby.

I'm so lucky to have great insurance ($1500 max out of pocket for the year is fantastic), but I still wound up with 3 different bills, with no explanation why, and no warning that I could still get billed 6 months later.

We are lucky in that we can cover the $700 without giving anything up but a little less savings this month - but what about people who can't?  I couldn't help but feel for the people who get this bill and have no idea how they are going to cover it.  Like this whole process and the procedure didn't suck enough.

Is an estimate and one timely bill too much to ask for?

Apparently.