Citation required. Preferably with inflation adjusted dollars, compensation for expansion of treatment options, and the Reagan decision that ER departments are legally required to treat any patient.

Feel free to make a moral case against Reagan's decision if you feel like it.

I received 3 stitches in my face around 1987 from the emergency room. Cost was $289. I don't know why I remember the figure. Today that would be $658.08 according to the inflation calculator at https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

I bought a 383 big block engine for my dodge, and a friend of mine was helping me move it into the garage. I tripped and fell on top of the block, making quite a gash in my eye socket. Lucky I missed my eye. Still have a scar! Sadly, the block turned out to have a crack in it and was not salvageable.

You put a crack in an engine block with your head?

That would make a better story, but the crack in the block was discovered when I set about rebuilding it, and had nothing to do with my soft head hitting it. The machined edges of a block are sharp, and by falling on it it made a deep gash in my face. Bled all over the engine and the floor.

I know, I know. I was misinterpreting your story for comedic effect. :P

He didn’t say his head caused the crack, just that there was one.

>Today that would be $658.08

That's still more than most Americans could easily afford. And that's for stitches.

That's also 20+ years after the big inflation in medical prices started. I did think it was high at the time, likely why I remembered the number.

If you go back as far as the 60s then you're not really comparing like for like. People don't want the level of medical care that the average American got in the 1960s.

Stitch technology hasn't changed.

This citation supports the point of the comment you are replying to.

Healthcare was cheaper before Reagan interfered in the health care industry to artificially inflate costs to the financial benefit of his buddies.