I'm on an HSA. The hospital would have gotten nothing from the insurer, and I would have had to pay the whole bill, if I hadn't hit my deductible. If I'd just

I'm on an HSA. The hospital would have gotten nothing from the insurer, and I would have had to pay the whole bill, if I hadn't hit my deductible. If I'd just been to the ER and not been admitted, I would have probably had to pay for it all. I have it on good authority that saline IV bags are dirt cheap. The hospital used a machine to control the delivery rate, but that cost should have been amortized over hundreds or thousands of patients. The nursing labor involved was negligible, not more than a half-hour for the whole stay.