While I don't think anything can justify America's healthcare system, there is definitely some information left out...
Wait, a second, did you say this was just a rattlesnake? I thought it might have been an exotic snake that they had to specially milk venom from, because they didn't have any antivenin on reserve or something.
But, uh, what?
Okay, I actually can explain the reasoning partially for the exorbitant prices on these treatments. If you have no health insurance, or poor coverage, you lack the bargaining power to effectively lower the costs of the treatment. Since healthcare coverage is essentially a life or death scenario, you, as the patient, have no power to refuse treatment. From a micro-economics standpoint, your demand is essentially infinite, so you're willing to settle for any cost. So, this effectively gives the health industry near unlimited power to jack up the prices to absurd levels. This is, apparently, most egregious in pharmaceuticals, where there's essentially a price czar that determines an exorbitant price for new drugs, and those drugs are only ever lowered by an intermediary such as an insurance agency or the government.
Basically, unless there is an external intermediary with a lot of bargaining power, health care costs will be exorbitant.
