I spent two hours in ER on Thanksgiving (long story, nothing major) and got a scrip for amoxicillin & a bill for almost a grand. Doesn’t take much, does it?
That is because you are also paying for others who don’t pay. Medicaid patients frequent the ER for minor illnesses, because they don’t care about the cost, then there are the illegals, and finally, insurance companies squeeze providers so much that the providers pad the bills just so they will get a fraction of what the bill is. Hospitals have to make up the difference somehow.
As always, the root of all these problems is government. It is the 800-pond gorilla in health care and insurance and has been for decades.