I imagine this is directly related to the inflated costs of emergency care. A dose of ibuprofen (two tablets) costing in the $40+ range?

Well they have to pay for storage and for that very well paid employee to pass you the pills.

Moderate sarcasm.

But really that’s a deeper issue with insurance causing most of that. If you don’t have insurance, most hospitals will severely discount the costs that you are originally charged if you just work with them. It shows those prices are bullshit to begin with.

Even if they are willing to give you a discount if you don’t have insurance, those ibuprofen pills are still going to be charged 10x or 100x over their cost. Health industry knows nobody can shop around and get quotes and regulators are unwilling to protect patients. It’s no wonder we are in the mess we are in.

My locality has a ballot initiative up this year that would put a % cap on what hospitals can charge over their costs, and boy oh boy are the industry mouthpieces out in force to oppose it! They are having a field day with patients’ wallets, they know it, and they don’t want it to end.

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Edit: since we only just warned you about this, I've banned your account until we get some indication that you intend to follow the rules from now on. You're welcome to email [email protected] if that's the case.