Making Health Insurance More Accessible

Thomas Capone / May 13, 2011

On Tuesday, May 10, 2011, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a report on the uninsured population and their ability to pay their hospital bills.  One of the more interesting takeaways from the report is that if you add up all the savings of the uninsured with incomes over 400 percent of the federal poverty level (or about $88,000 for a family of four), it will cover about 37 percent of their total hospital bills.

How do the uninsured get away with not having the assets to pay their bills? Well, the average uninsured person only pays for about a quarter of their total health care costs. Taxpayers end up covering about 75 percent of the unpaid tab through direct payment and extra disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments made by Medicaid and Medicare, while those with private insurance, hospitals, and charities pick up the rest. (more…)