If you live in the US and don't have medical insurance, you might want to look into getting some after seeing just how expensive some procedures are...
It's not new information that it can prove to be extremely expensive in America if you need healthcare without insurance.
For example, British couple Issy Ferris and Archie Sylvester were slapped with a $200,000 bill after after Ferris gave birth in Nashville seven weeks early.
Initially the company they took out travel insurance with refused to pay out because their unborn child was not listed on the policy, BBC News reported last month, but this decision was later reversed.
Advert
But $200,000 is a far cry from the price of some other surgeries as some procedures can set you back more than $1,000,000 without insurance.
The most expensive surgeries
According to U.S. News, these are some of the most expensive surgeries you can have in America without insurance as of 2025.
- Heart transplant ($1.3 million)
- Liver transplant ($1.1 million)
- Bone marrow transplant ($950,000)
- Double lung transplant ($850,000)
- Intestinal or small bowel transplant ($750,000)
- Pancreas transplant ($600,000)
In contrast to this, Statista said that a double lung transplant could cost more than $2.3 million. Meanwhile, a heart transplant might cost around $1.9 million.
The cheapest procedure listed by the data gathering site was a cornea transplant costing $57,000.
These prices have drastically increased since 2017.
Per a Fortune article published that year, a heart transplant would set you back $1.4 million while a pancreas transplant was $347,000 — something which has since nearly doubled in price.
A bone marrow transplant, the third most expensive transplant listed by U.S. News, was said to cost $893,000 in 2017; an example of another procedure that's spiked in price.
Why is healthcare so expensive in America
According to Investopedia, one of the reasons US healthcare is so expensive is because of the high salaries doctors and surgeons get.
A family doctor was making as much as $239,000 a year in 2023, said the outlet. In comparison, an emergency room physician had an average annual salary of over $300,000.
These are much higher in comparison to other countries such as Germany ($183,000), the UK ($138,000), and Canada ($194,777).
The rising cost of drugs also plays a huge part in the price of healthcare and procedures. US citizens reportedly spend – on average – twice as much for pharmaceutical drugs as people in other industrialized countries.
In 2022, the average American was spending $963 on prescription drugs per person.
A driving factor of this is because private insurers can negotiate drug prices with manufacturers. Meanwhile, in other countries, the government regulates the price of medications.
Niamh Shackleton