[tkiley]

> you probably wouldn't pay 400$ for a bag of saline solution

Hey, this is a great example: I might very well pay $400 for a bag of saline solution even if I knew the price in advance, because I don't care about the price of the bag. I care about the all-in cost of my treatment. If that total cost happens to include a $400 bag, I don't really care.

The "$30 Asprin" narrative sometimes misses the big picture of healthcare costs. The price of an apsrin or bag of saline solution is inflated to cover the enormous fixed costs of running a hospital with an ER. Could the ER charge $4 per bag or $0.25 per asprin? Of course, but if they lose their per-unit margin on the saline and asprin, they're going to jack up the price of some other CPT code because they have to cover their fixed costs somewhere.

[tehlike]

that's a great point, and something that is actually telling about the us healthcare.

The 400$ saline bag is probably an illustrative example, but i believe it's a pretty common line item for most surgeries. I don't know enough about medical procedures, but i assume it's not one of the rare items/prescriptions where the high cost is somewhat justified.

I care about "all-in" cost of treatment. I don't see that. I don't see that until it's too late. I don't get charged for "all-in", i get charged per individual item in that "all-in" care i got.