America’s pregnancy-care paradox: Paying ever more for the same bad results

America is an expensive place to give birth—the "costliest in the world," according to The New York Times. Giving birth in most other countries is free or cheap for just about every citizen. But in prenatal and pregnancy care, as is the case with medical care at large, America's high-cost system does not lead to first-rate outcomes. On the contrary: The website Mapping Health has observed that when it comes to maternity care, costs have been increasing without any corresponding increase in results. The average cost of a delivery doubled between 1993 and 2009, and yet the mortality rate for mothers actually rose. In other developed countries, that rate declined during that period.