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The Cost of Surrogacy

I'm Bill Houghton, and today we're talking about the Cost of Surrogacy. What are the costs at different destinations worldwide, what are the components of your surrogacy journey and how much they cost, and what can you do to bring your costs down. Surrogacy costs vary widely around the world. The United States which has become an international hub is also the most exorbitantly expensive spot in the world. A typical agency program in the U.S. is going to cost about $150,000. Now there are some cheaper programs in the US, and I've seen agency programs for as little as $95,000. Those are typical programs that are away from the US coasts. U.S. West Coast (California and Washington, Oregon) are the most expensive states because there's an enormous amount of competition. If you go to a surrogacy program in the middle of the country you're going to save a little bit of money -- so around $100,000 in the middle of the country, around $150,000 on either coast. The other option is to do Independent Surrogacy. An independent surrogacy program saves money because there's no agent. Agents cost from $15,000 to $30,000. They find your surrogate, they manage her clinical appointments, they see her through the pregnancy, etc. But if you want to do that yourself and manage your surrogate directly, you can save the agency fee and basically cut from $15,000 to $30,000 out of your budget. In addition to your $150,000 program budget (or $80,000 dollars in the case of an Indie program) should also include the cost of medications, which is going to be $5,000 to $10,000. Also the cost for your egg donor (if you need one) is an expensive proposition. An egg donor in the US is going to cost you anywhere from $15,000 to $20,000 for a good egg donor from a donation agency. So all in all in the U.S. -- very expensive. The American medical system is really convoluted and it happens all the time that there are unexpected medical costs. These additional medical complications can really impact how much your final surrogacy journey is going to cost you. By the way, I should say that I work with a lot of programs in the US and I have a few that I really love. I bring clients there because I have a lot of faith in them. But if you are concerned about your surrogacy costs, then the U.S. is a dangerous place to be playing, because the costs are high and unpredictable. Compare the U.S. to other international destinations -- and there are quite a few. Canada, which has become quite popular, is about $85,000, which will typically include your egg donor. Greece is good if you're a European citizen because there are some laws that allow for European citizenship, and that's about $80,000. Mexico also costs about $80,000. If you're considering a program in Colombia or Ukraine you can expect about $50,000 for a surrogacy program, including your donor and all of the extras. Developing countries where there's no legislation and no regulation can be very cheap. Kenya right now is about $45,000 for a surrogacy program, but you get sort of what you pay for. Why do these costs vary so much? The answer is twofold. One is the basic cost of living. The US generally is an expensive place to live. Compare Los Angeles to Kiev, which are two surrogacy hubs worldwide. Cost of living in in Los Angeles is 3 times higher than in Kiev. That means that your surrogate, who is earning $15,000 in Kiev, is making the same amount in terms of value as a surrogate earning $45,000 in Los Angeles. So for the exact same service by the exact same woman, you are paying one-third if you go to a program overseas in Kiev. The other reason why surrogacy costs are lower overseas is just the cost of medical care. Americans love to think that their medical care system is the best in the world, and in general the best clinics in the US are in fact the best clinics worldwide. But the typical clinic in the U.S. is really not that much better than the typical clinic overseas. Generally, your journey overseas is going to be covered by national medical care. The US has a privatized medical care system -- you have to buy insurance through a provider and pay out-of-pocket to your hospital. That pushes the cost of your surrogacy journey way up. If you were to have a baby in Kiev -- if you were just pregnant and you went to a maternity hospital and you delivered your baby -- you could walk out three days later with a healthy baby and basically having paid nothing. If you do the same thing in California you are likely to have to pay $5,000 to $10,000 out-of-pocket if you have insurance. If you don't have insurance you can expect to pay far more than that (or you're going to have to go on some sort of government assistance and then have the government pay for that). So the combination of the lower cost of living and the national healthcare overseas that typically covers your pregnancy is a big reason why going abroad for surrogacy is a lot less expensive than in the US.