Noel Valle woke up one morning thinking he had bad indigestion.

That evening, Valle found himself in a hospital bed, minus one inflamed appendix. But for the junior engineering major, the pain had just begun. Valle soon got his first hospital bill in the mail, totaling nearly $25,000.

Valle is one of thousands of people admitted to the hospital for emergencies each year, only to find themselves with massive bills afterward. Average costs for an appendectomy within 50 miles of DeKalb range from $20,000 to nearly $60,000, according to data from WPS Health Insurance’s Web site.

Loren Foelske, vice president of finance for Kishwaukee Health System, attributes rising health care costs to increases in a variety of outside costs. Foelske said increasing federal regulations, overhead costs and demand for new technology all drive up health care costs. Foelske also noted that the number of uninsured and under-insured patients is on the rise, further contributing to rising costs.

“Nearly one in four patients fit into that category,” Foelske said. “But we can’t deny them access to care.”

Because Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements to the hospital system are far less than the actual cost of procedures, hospitals must absorb that cost and pass it along to consumers.

Foelske said Medicare generally pays 35 to 40 percent of costs, while Medicaid pays 15 to 20 percent, adding that Medicaid is currently nine months behind on payments.

Insurance is not just a factor for consumers. Malpractice insurance for doctors and hospitals plays a big role in hospital prices, according to Foelske. For family practice doctors, malpractice insurance costs about $23,000 per year. For orthopedic surgeons, it can reach $80,000 per year, and for OBGYN practitioners, it can cost about $97,000 per year.

Foelske said these high rates are driven by excessive lawsuits against insurance companies, who then seek to recoup their losses through customers. Malpractice insurance is mandatory, and each medical practitioner is required to have his or her own policy, said Foelske.

Health care is a big issue in the presidential race. Democratic front-runners senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama favor universal health insurance with unconditional eligibility, while Republican front-runner Sen. John McCain favors tax breaks for families to purchase health insurance on their own.

The U.S. spends more on health as a percentage of gross domestic product, at 15.2 percent, than any other country. This is more than double the average, according to data from the World Health Organization.

Government expenditures on health in the U.S. amount to 44.6 percent of total health expenditures. Health care accounts for 18.5 percent of all government expenditures in the U.S.

The U.S. is the only industrialized nation without universal health care, according to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. The IOM is a nonprofit organization “for science-based advice on matters of biomedical science, medicine, and health,” according to its Web site.

Valle’s NIU insurance eventually covered most of the cost of his appendectomy, but he still had to pay some of the cost out of his own pocket, since he has no personal health insurance.

“Things like that actually make you not want to go to the doctor,” Valle said. “It makes you not want to get sick, that’s for sure.”