Why Are American Hospitals Charging Up to $800 for a $1 Bag of Salt Water?Melissa Melton Just last month, this guy posted a bill for his appendectomy on Reddit and it went viral. Why? Because he was charged a stomach-turning $55,000 for the relatively simple procedure an amount that wouldve likely induced appendicitis if the guy hadnt already had his appendix taken out. Overpriced, much? Did that surgery come with foie gras and caviar afterward? Two thoughts crossed my mind when I saw it: A) Thats insanely outlandish, and B) only in America could such an insanely outlandish thing even be possible. I decided to do a little research to see if this was actually true. After all, approximately 70% of the surface of this planet is covered in water 97% of which is of the salt variety. Are hospitals really charging Americans up to $800 for one of the most abundant resources on the planet and something that ultimately costs a whole buck to make? Yes. As a matter of fact, it turns out they are. Some of the patients bills would later include markups of 100 to 200 times the manufacturers price, not counting separate charges for IV administration. And on other bills, a bundled charge for IV therapy was almost 1,000 times the official cost of the solution. How can hospitals get away with charging $800 for a bag of saltwater and $25 for a single aspirin? My dad would call that highway robbery (like dads do). Well, apparently it all has to do with our governments jacked up reimbursement structure: Public programs do not fully pay for the cost of care. The latest figures estimate that hospitals lose $35 billion a year on Medicare, Medicaid and other forms of government reimbursement. For specific procedures, the picture can be even bleaker. Take note, because this money isnt lost you pay the difference. Unable to absorb these losses, the bill gets passed to commercial insurers and employers that purchase health plans for their employees. Hence the itemized charges of $25 for an aspirin or $100 for diapers that are paid by insurers today, and by you and me tomorrow in the form of higher premiums and co-pays. And its only going to get worse as our population ages and more of us call Medicare our insurance provider. When CBS Sacramento asked the hospital mentioned earlier why it charged $55,000 for a simple appendectomy, they confirmed this to be the case: And apparently our big fat investment in Americas Big Pharma-dominated allopathic medical system ultimately gives us some pretty pathetic returns on actual health: We get mediocre to poor results on life expectancy (26th place), infant mortality (31st), low birth weight (28th), maternal mortality (25th), you name it. Its been true since the early 1980s, and we keep looking for solutions from within the health care sector itself. (source) This has been true for decades and yet, were still looking for solutions within what is obviously a failed system? (Of course, now were in the process of being forced into that failed system via Obamacare.) So despite spending 2.5 times more than any other country on healthcare per capita an amount equivalent to 18% of our nations GDP the U.S. is still sitting at 26th in overall life expectancy behind Slovenia? Great. Heres to spending $799 on almost nothing, America! Now you can see why a Bayer pharmaceuticals CEO would say his company doesnt make cancer medicines for Indian markets (a developing nation that averages $132 per person spent on healthcare annually versus Americas $8,362), but for Western patients who can afford them. Uh huh. Melissa Melton is a writer, researcher, and analyst for The Daily Sheeple, where this first appeared, and a co-creator of Truthstream Media. Wake the flock up! 