National Median Cost for C-Section Covered by Commercial Insurance Is More Than $19,000

June 18, 2025

The national median total cost for a C-section for commercially insured patients staying in network is more than $19,000, and for vaginal delivery it is more than $15,000, according to FAIR Health’s Cost of Giving Birth Tracker. These figures reflect the national median allowed (in-network) amount for the procedures, and include both the portion to be paid by the plan member and the portion to be paid by the plan.

The Cost of Giving Birth Tracker is a free, interactive tool, updated recently, that tracks the cost of giving birth state by state. Available on FAIR Health’s website fairhealth.org, the Cost of Giving Birth Tracker consists of heat maps that show state-specific and national median charge and allowed amounts for vaginal deliveries and C-sections. The tool draws on the national, independent nonprofit FAIR Health’s database of over 51 billion commercial healthcare claim records—the largest such repository in the country.

The Cost of Giving Birth Tracker includes inpatient and outpatient facility and professional costs. Services include the delivery itself (e.g., pharmacy, nursery, labor and delivery room, medical and surgical supplies, room and board for the mother), anesthesia, fetal nonstress tests, ultrasounds, laboratory work and a breast pump. The data come from the September 2024 release of the vaginal delivery and C-section FH® Total Treatment Cost benchmarks.

Among the findings of the Cost of Giving Birth Tracker:

  • Alaska is the state with the highest median allowed amount for vaginal deliveries, $29,152.08, followed by (in order from highest to lowest) New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and California.
  • Alaska also has the highest median allowed amount for C-sections, $39,531.62, followed by Maine, Vermont, Oregon and New Jersey.
  • Mississippi has the lowest median allowed amount for vaginal deliveries, $9,847.37, followed by (in order from lowest to highest) Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Missouri.
  • Mississippi also has the lowest median allowed amount for C-sections, $11,110.18, followed by Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee.

The Cost of Giving Birth Tracker is one of FAIR Health’s series of FH® Trackers offering geographic windows into healthcare data. The series also includes the Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker, which tracks telehealth utilization by region across the nation, and the Opioid Tracker, which tracks opioid abuse and dependence.

For the Cost of Giving Birth Tracker, click here.