Husband Demands His Wife Pay The Entire Hospital Bill For The Birth Of Their Child — ‘You’re The One Who Couldn’t Hold Out & Got An Epidural’
How is this splitting everything 50/50?
KieferPix / Shutterstock Deciding how to handle finances as a married couple can be complicated. Will you split everything right down the middle, or will you combine your money?
One couple that decided everything should be split evenly ran into some trouble when it came time for the birth of their first child.
A new dad thought his wife should pay all hospital expenses related to the birth of their child.
A listener of The Ramsey Show wrote in with a question regarding how funds were split and spent for her child’s birth. Finance experts and “Ramsey personalities” George Kamel and Dr. John Delony, who were hosting the show that day, took on the question.
“So, this woman recently gives birth, and her husband demands that she pay the entire hospital bill herself,” Kamel explained.
Kamel continued on to detail the couple’s financial agreement in their marriage. “They split everything in their marriage 50/50 when it comes to finances and generally keep their money separate,” he said. “And everything seemed to be going pretty well until they received a hospital bill for this birth.”
Apparently, this issue would not have come up if this mom had stuck with her original birth plan.
“So, here’s the deal,” Kamel said. “She planned to give birth without any medication, but after 24 hours of labor, decided to do the epidural. And when the bill came, her husband expected her to pay the entire eight grand bill herself.”
This woman was understandably confused as to why her husband would say such a thing. When she questioned him, “He said, ‘You’re the one who couldn’t hold out for a few more hours, and you jacked up the bill, and I shouldn’t have to pay for all these extra requests.’”
“So, she ended up paying the entire bill on her own,” Kamel said. “And now she’s wondering and questioning, are her feelings valid?”
The Ramseys are known for believing money should be combined in a marriage, but they aren’t the only ones who feel that way.
The Ramsey family and, by extension, the brand make their belief that money should be joined in marriage well known. In an article for the Ramsey website, Dave Ramsey’s daughter, Rachel Cruze, wrote about how money should be managed in a marriage.
“Marriage is a partnership,” she said. “It’s no longer ‘his and her money.’ The officiant said, ‘Two become one.’ Separating the money and splitting the bills is a bad idea that only leads to more money and relationship problems down the road.”
This isn’t just a Ramsey-taught concept. Evidence gathered by Indiana University backed this up. A press release from them stated, “Married couples who have joint bank accounts not only have better relationships, but they fight less over money and feel better about how household finances are handled.”
Assistant professor of marketing Jenny Olson said, “When we surveyed people of varying relationship lengths, those who had merged accounts reported higher levels of communality within their marriage compared to people with separate accounts, or even those who partially merged their finances. They frequently told us they felt more like they were ‘in this together.’”
Delony agreed with this line of thinking and said so in his response to this mother and wife’s question.
“Here’s the thing I do wanna call out.” In reference to what some viewers told him, he said, “‘I’m not gonna share a checking account. I’m not gonna share bills. We split this thing 50/50.’”
“This is the end result of that,” he insisted. “Where’s your line, dude?”
Although some experts agree that sharing finances in a relationship is the best route to take, it is ultimately up to each individual couple how they will handle their money. With that being said, it seems incredibly unfair that this woman would have to cover the hospital bill for the birth of her child on her own. After all, it’s not just her child.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news and human interest topics.