Well, healthcare is expensive and so are medical equipment and devices. A hospital bill of several $1000 per day does not seem shocking to me; staffing, equipping, and operating a hospital is not cheap. We are talking about a facility full of multi-million dollar equipment and six figure sallaries. I'm sure some of the expense is due to care for the uninsured, but it would still be expensive.

I recently paid about $5000 for a pair of hearing aids for my wife; clearly the device itself only contains a few dollars worth of hardware (my $700 phone is much more complex), but that's not really what I was paying for. One of my kids takes a medication that retails for about $1200 per month; again, I'm paying for more than just the pills. I also just paid about $3500 for an (unsucessful) surgery for one of my dogs. I was paying for more than just the vet's time. The point is that medical expenses cover the cost of the entire system, not just your specific procedure. Personally, this is one area where I don't mind spending a little extra.