Ms. Frank said that the charge was incurred because an extra nurse was needed in the operating room while Mr. Grassley and his wife held their newborn son and that the nurse was necessary to ensure that “both mom and baby remain safe.”

“Only in the case of a C-section birth is an additional nurse brought into the operating room,” the statement said.

Once Mr. Grassley saw that the Reddit thread was gaining momentum, he clarified that he and his wife knew the cost for the delivery would be steep. The total charges listed on the bill, including the C-section, came to $13,280.49 before payments and adjustments.

“We knew what we were signing up for and have some money saved up,” he wrote, adding: “Everyone involved in the process was great, and we had a positive experience. We just got a chuckle out of seeing that on the bill.”

Of course, not everyone is financially prepared to deal with exorbitant costs, which helps explain why the post prompted such attention. The Reddit thread that Mr. Grassley started was filled with horror stories about medical fees and the comparative ease of paying them in other countries.

In a Time magazine cover story in 2013, Steven Brill wrote about how American hospitals can charge high fees for seemingly simple procedures. Though the article was filled with stories similar to Mr. Grassley’s, Mr. Brill also noted that American health care is not governed by a rate-setting system.

This means the federal government does not set rates for items like skin-to-skin contact or for summoning an additional nurse to the operating room after a C-section.