If you're in the USA and you go to the hospital make sure that if the hospital staff is going to use anything you might get charged for they open it there in the room with you. In the case of minor over the counter medicine it's within your rights to keep all of it if comes in a bottle. They will charge you for the entire thing anyway so keep it. Also make sure to get an itemized report and ask for the name of everything they use on you. Many times there will be a list of things every patient gets charged for even if they were not used simply because you were seen in a separate room.
Yeah the health system
in America is ridiculous. When I went to the ER for a bad stomach bug they hooked me up to an IV and gave me two medications. And then left me alone for 3 hours. Guess who was charged a $5,000 hospital bill after.
There was also, in the last year or two if I remember correctly [it is still ongoing - some reasons why ashp.org/menu/DrugShortages/CurrentShortages/bulletin.aspx?id=993] a major shortage of sterile saline. Just because something is "simple" doesn't make it easy to get. It takes almost a month to make a batch of saline.
Thank God for the NHS
http://www.thedailysheeple.com/why-are-american-hospitals-charging-up-to-800-for-a-1-bag-of-saltwater_022014
in America is ridiculous. When I went to the ER for a bad stomach bug they hooked me up to an IV and gave me two medications. And then left me alone for 3 hours. Guess who was charged a $5,000 hospital bill after.