[ClearBlueSky]

I’d like to know how they can charge $1000 per unit of blood when blood is donated FREE.

[farlander]

Wellllll... there’s storage, testing (making sure it’s ok), someone to figure out which one to use, to administer it, etc. It’s not exactly ‘free’. But still that seems a lot.

Bottom line is that the free market should determine these prices. But it doesn’t. We’ve regulated it out. And the consumer doesn’t have an option to select the best care for the best price they can afford. It’s best care at any price and everything else be damned. That is what really drives the costs up. Why can’t all these services be listed (at least at the physician and basic tests (xray, cat) level) so people can choose. At the very least that would put some competition back into the system.

[Pessimist]

“I’d like to know how they can charge $1000 per unit of blood when blood is donated FREE.”

Plus shipping and handling... :)

I know, that is a scam.

[StormEye]

"I’d like to know how they can charge $1000 per unit of blood when blood is donated FREE!"

Which is one of the reasons I don't donate blood to the Red Cross.