National Median Cost for C-Section Covered by Commercial Insurance Is Nearly $20,000

News provided by

Jun 22, 2026, 08:34 ET

Alaska Has Highest Median In-Network Amount for Vaginal Delivery and C-Section, According to FAIR Health Cost of Giving Birth Tracker

NEW YORK, June 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The national median¹ total cost for a C-section for commercially insured patients staying in network is $19,911, and for vaginal delivery it is $15,728, according to FAIR Health's Cost of Giving Birth Tracker. These figures reflect the national median allowed (in-network) amount² for the procedures.

The Cost of Giving Birth Tracker is a free, interactive tool, updated today, 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 charge³ and allowed amounts for vaginal deliveries and C-sections. The tool draws on the national, independent nonprofit FAIR Health's database of commercial healthcare claim records—the nation's largest such repository, which is growing at a rate of more than four billion claim records a year.

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 2025 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, $30,585, followed by (in order from highest to lowest) New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Oregon.
Alaska also has the highest median allowed amount for C-sections, $42,044, followed by Vermont, Maine, Oregon and Wyoming.
Alabama has the lowest median allowed amount for vaginal deliveries, $10,275, followed by (in order from lowest to highest) Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Louisiana.
Alabama also has the lowest median allowed amount for C-sections, $11,281, followed by Mississippi, 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 Quarterly Telehealth Regional Tracker, which tracks telehealth utilization by region across the nation, and the Opioid Tracker, which tracks opioid use disorder.

For the Cost of Giving Birth Tracker, click here.

About FAIR Health
FAIR Health's mission is to supply objective, unbiased information for all stakeholders to improve healthcare quality, access and affordability. It holds the nation's largest collection of commercial healthcare claims data, which is growing at a rate of more than four billion claim records a year. A national Qualified Entity certified by CMS, FAIR Health also receives all claims for individuals enrolled in traditional Medicare Parts A, B and D. As a testament to its reliability and objectivity, FAIR Health's data products—including pricing benchmarks and custom analytics—are widely used by commercial insurers and self-insurers, providers, hospitals and healthcare systems, government, researchers and more. FAIR Health has been designated an official data source for state health programs, including workers' compensation and personal injury protection (PIP) programs, and surprise billing laws that protect consumers. FAIR Health's free consumer website and mobile app, available in English and Spanish, enable consumers to estimate and plan for their healthcare expenses and offer a rich educational platform on health insurance. The website has been honored by the White House Summit on Smart Disclosure, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), URAC, the eHealthcare Leadership Awards, appPicker, Employee Benefit News and Kiplinger's Personal Finance. FAIR Health is a national, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. For more information on FAIR Health, visit fairhealth.org.

Contact:
Rachel Kent
Executive Director of Communications and Marketing
FAIR Health
646-396-0795
[email protected]

¹ A median is the midpoint of the distribution of values below and above which there is an equal number of values.
² An allowed amount is the total fee contracted between an insurance plan and a provider for an in-network service. It includes both the portion to be paid by the plan member and the portion to be paid by the plan.
³ A charge amount is the amount the provider bills.

SOURCE FAIR Health