It gets even worse than that. When our first child was born, in the States, it was in a birthing center associated with the local hospital. This was in its own

It gets even worse than that. When our first child was born, in the States, it was in a birthing center associated with the local hospital. This was in its own building, but in that building they have a room they call the "ER" -- this is where they decide whether to admit you, in terms of being ready to give birth. The entire function of that room, though, is just to charge exorbitant ER rates for admitting into the birthing center. (A 10 minute dilation exam.) This is completely fraudulent, of course, but they've been getting away with it for many, many years.