As for the blood, my father took 26 pints at 26 dollars each in 1959 in Baptist Hospital in Winston Salem, N. C.
The blood story I know is accurate. They do charge for it as do all agencies that collect blood. They started providing blood for the military in 1941. Blood collection, testing, and transporting are very expensive. RC, like any other non-profit, can't make profit from services. Blood collection is not covered by disaster relief donations and so the cost of collection and processing has to be covered by fee. A non-profit is only allowed to keep a buffer of money for oportating costs/emergencies, not for profit.
Your argument for the cost of the blood should be against the military. Why did the military pass on the cost of life saving treatment to its members? They don't do that now. They still get blood from RC.
Elizabeth Dole was probably one of the best leaders of RC. The current woman is an asshat. I know they get paid a lot, but this is an international organization and attracting people with the experience to run such an organization costs money. IDK what the current woman gets paid, but whatever it is, it is to much. Serices everywhere have degraded under her management, but for some reason, she's been allowed to stay since 2008. I met her that year and knew we were in trouble. She came to my kitchen for a photo op and never bothered to meet any of the volunteers, or me. I was running the biggest food service/kitchen in that disaster at the time.
At this point, I'd be happy to have another relief agency in place of RC, but they are chartered by Congress for disaster relief. They are getting into bed with the government in a way they resisted before, and it is not to our benefit. This started about the time of hurricanes Gustav and Ike when they were running a deficit due to all the disasters and FEMA stepped in to "help".