Cost Shifting Does Not Justify Obamacare | Jeffrey A. Singer | Cato Institute: Commentary

Cost Shifting Does Not Justify Obamacare | Jeffrey A. Singer | Cato Institute: Commentary: "when people don’t pay their medical bills, somebody has to bear that cost. But who?

A study from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that in many cases, it’s other uninsured patients. Many uninsured patients who do pay their bills wind up paying the “list prices” for the services they received. The list price is well above what any provider expects to receive from an insurance company. Physicians collect more from those uninsured patients than they would from insured patients. That extra money often covers the cost of uninsured patients who don’t pay."

"cost shifting due to the uninsured raised private insurance premiums 1.7% “at most.”"

"Much of the current uncompensated care problem is due to a 1986 law called EMTALA (the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act). This law bans hospitals from transferring patients to facilities set up to provide care to the indigent. In the process, it encourages people not to purchase health insurance and to use emergency rooms for primary care. People know that hospital emergency rooms must treat them, and cannot transfer them, even if they have no intention of ever paying for their care. So, for many, the urgency to purchase health insurance becomes less acute."