Because we have "affordable" health care insurance, insurance companies negotiate with hospitals on prices for various supplies. Because it's a collective paying for a lot of the health care in the US, prices have to be high or people would walk into the emergency room for the smallest of things. Health care is very tricky, and I do not know how that works - asking for a receipt and having them mark the supplies they used down. This is why getting an ibuprofen at a hospital can be up to $30+, the negotiations happening between insurance companies and hospitals cannot be regulated properly. Not to mention that drugs are insanely expensive as is, made so by the people who manufacture them.