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In your particular anecdote, the cost to you for your pain pill is the cost of having a specific prescription delivered to you in the Emergency Department of a first world health care facility, the most expensive form of health care that exists in the world. The best way to curb this, aside from the individual market I already mentioned, is to create an intermediary care facility, like modern Urgent Care, that keeps non-life threatening cases out of the Emergency Room. That system wasn't really in place in 2002, but it's becoming more common as hospital systems invest in "ER Avoidance Programs" to lower their own costs. My own system is affiliated with a large Urgent Care network and we're currently developing agreements with several specialists to be "immediate care providers" who will accept same day referrals from PCPs that would normally go to the ER. Anytime we can provide care in a setting other than the ER it's a win in the "cost reduction" column, which really is good for everyone.

 

In defense of the ACA, this is what they were trying to address by requiring all Americans to be insured:  that people would use insurance for preventative care - say removing a stone-infested gall bladder involving an easy outpatient procedure -instead of going to the emergency room with a burst gall bladder and requiring 3 weeks in an ICU.

 

Which said uninsured patient would then skip paying, driving insurance up for the rest of us.

 

You want to know why that emergency room pill costs so much?  Because the uninsured can't afford to pay their emergency room bills.  Thus, they charge the insured enough to cover the bill, and most of the time, create a healthy albeit modest profit.

 

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