Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Latest Report on the ‘Uninsured’, Pt.2– Who pays that other $56 billion fronted?

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After subtracting government payments to those hospitals for those without health insurance, dedicated Physicians' are said to be providing free, or reduced-cost treatment and, by doing so, are foregoing about $7.8 billion in profits that they would, otherwise, have received. As far as exactly how much these doctors and hospitals are losing because of their care giving to those without health insurance, it’s hard to say. This is because “group plans often negotiate lower payment rates than other consumers are billed,” states Mr. Hadley. He has defined ‘uncompensated care’ for those without health insurance as: “The difference between how much the uninsured paid and what the providers would have received had those patients been privately insured.”

As far as the fear that this ‘uncompensated care’ will end up raising health insurance rates for the others who have private health insurance, Mr. Hadley downplays this fear by explaining that the impact has been found to be ‘very small’. Even though, the ‘uninsured’ population is steadily growing, the effect on ‘uncompensated care’ costs have been ‘relatively stable’. Some of the reason for this is that many of the public hospitals and clinics involved don’t have a large base of insured patients, in the first place. The lion’s share is covered through taxes and state-sponsored ‘safety nets’.

The next group that assist those without health insurance (and those they assist) are charitable groups and private philanthropy who are contributing additional amounts to the tune of around $6.3 billion, according to the report, which was published on the www.healthaffairs.org/ website. This group is diverse and fragmented, but still a very critical component of the system.

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