The Staggering Cost of Unnecessary C-Sections

California Watch: Unnecessary C-sections a $3.5B problem, study finds, by Nathanael Johnson:

What would maternity care look like if doctors only intervened when it was medically necessary?

For more than a year now, I’ve been trying to answer that question in terms of the physical health of the mother and child. But for a moment let’s forget about increasing maternal mortality and babies in the neonatal intensive care units – and look at what happens to our national health care bill.

Intermountain Healthcare released a study yesterday showing that if the U.S. cesarean surgery rate (32 percent of all births at last count) fell to the rate in Intermountain hospitals (21 percent), the country would save $3.5 billion in medical charges each year. . . .