(FORTUNE Magazine) – How many Ninja Turtle action toys does it take to pay for an appendectomy? Answer: 39,000, at least if you're Dayton Hudson. Kenneth Macke, CEO of the Minneapolis retailer, told the Senate Finance Committee that his chain must sell that many to clear the cost of such an operation for an employee (see table for what other companies must sell to pay for the procedure). Sorry, this won't enable you to figure out various profit margins, because hospital and physician prices vary so much. For example, surgeons' fees for an appendectomy average $870 in Dallas and $1,815 in New York City. Macke testified along with Walter Williams, CEO of Bethlehem Steel, and other chief executives to try to push Washington to help corporate America in its attempts to control steadily mounting health care costs. Williams argued that the programs individual companies have tried amount to little more than ''Band-Aids.'' He later told FORTUNE, ''As much as I hate to say it, the problem is beyond our control. We need the government to get involved.'' In 1990, 35 corporations, including AT&T, Chrysler, Eastman Kodak, 3M, and Wal-Mart Stores, got together with union and consumer groups to form the National Leadership Coalition for Health Care Reform. Driving them: the steep climb in health care costs for private employers. They rose 15.5% last year, vs. 10% for health care costs in general. Companies complain that they are absorbing the cost of the lower prices Medicare and Medicaid pay for hospital services. Why the disparity? For one thing, the government sets limits on what it will pay hospitals. The hundreds of insurers representing the private sector have less clout. An aging population and the higher cost of insuring retirees further burden many companies. Bethlehem Steel's 94,000 retirees and their dependents drained $110 million of the $205 million the company spent in 1990 on health care, vs. $85 million of $162 million in 1989. Prognosis? Says Kenneth Thorpe, associate professor at the University of North Carolina's school of public health: ''We've had national health care insurance debate for 80 years. But now you've got big corporate players at the table who have a lot of influence in Republican circles. That hasn't happened before.''

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE CREDIT: FORTUNE TABLE/SOURCE: COMPANY ESTIMATES CAPTION: WHAT COMPANIES MUST SELL TO PAY FOR AN APPENDECTOMY