Too Poor to be Sick?

25 years ago, it was a huge deal that hospital costs were so high. Astronomically higher than common sense could explain. Aspirin cost $10 each. An IV drip was $200. Basic non-private room was $800 per day. Why? Now, we understand that hospitals need to charge massive fees partially to pay legal costs, but mostly to pay for the care of people who have no money (ie no health insurance). Somehow, we learned to live with this system, even though it was largely ineffective and cost twice as much as single-payer health insurance that would have covered everyone in the country. Many, if not most hospitals operate as non-profit entities. They shuffle tons of money around, but pay no investors. Oh well, it may be a bad system, but at least it's a system.