Hospitals “are mulling how to handle charity care for uninsured, non-Medicaid-eligible patients who come in for treatment and who could have but did not obtain subsidized coverage through the federal insurance exchange. Their question is whether such patients should receive full charity care—either free care or deep discounts on their bills—when they had a source of affordable coverage under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and did not take advantage of it. … [Hospitals] fear that … patients may see [the hospitals’] financial aid as a better deal than having to pay premiums, deductibles and coinsurance…”
I’m no soothsayer, but I predict that we’ll hear in a few years how “private” charity and hospitals’ stingy profit-motive failed the poor, uninsured hordes, so of course Our benevolent Rulers had to step in and save the day.
9:52 am on March 11, 2014
