Is price gouging theft? I would say so. As a counselor for theft education and prevention classes my students would agree. Capitalism should create a competitive market that would deter price gouging.

Can you think of a place or time where you felt gouged? I am not talking about paying $7 for a beer at a sporting event or $5 for a hot dog, I am talking about serious gouging. As reported in www.nytimes.com.

How about healthcare? Oops, did I just bring up a politically-sensitive topic? Who is happy with the healthcare system in America? It is possible that the only satisfied healthcare recipients are the Congressmen who pay nothing for it and get great benefits from their Cadillac Plan.

It is one of the most common components of emergency medicine: an intravenous bag of sterile saltwater.

IV Therapy Robbery

Luckily for anyone who has ever needed an IV bag to replenish lost fluids or to receive medication, it is also one of the least expensive. The average manufacturer’s price, according to government data, has fluctuated in recent years from 44 cents to $1.

One study about the costs of medical services traced the commercial path of IV bags from the factory to the veins of more than 100 patients struck by a May 2012 outbreak of food poisoning in upstate New York.

Some of the patients’ bills would later include markups of 100 to 200 times the manufacturer’s 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.

It is no secret that medical care in the United States is overpriced. But as the tale of the humble IV bag shows all too clearly, it is secrecy that helps keep prices high: hidden in the underbrush of transactions among multiple buyers and sellers, and in the hieroglyphics of hospital bills.

This is the heart of what is wrong with our healthcare system in America. I welcome your thoughts on the subject.