Covering the uninsured in 2008: current costs, sources of payment, and incremental costs.
People uninsured for any part of 2008 spend about $30 billion out of pocket and receive approximately $56 billion in uncompensated care while uninsured. Government programs finance about 75 percent of uncompensated care. If all uninsured people were fully covered, their medical spending would increase by $122.6 billion. The increase represents 5 percent of current national health spending and 0.8 percent of gross domestic product. However, it is neither the cost of a specific plan nor necessarily the same as the government's costs, which could be higher, depending on plans' financing structures and the extent of crowd-out.
Hadley
Jack
J
Health Administration and Policy, George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, USA. jhgmu@yahoo.com
Holahan
John
J
Coughlin
Teresa
T
Miller
Dawn
D
D003361:Cost Allocation; D004469:Economics, Hospital; D005380:Financing, Government; D017048:Health Care Costs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D019458:Insurance Coverage / Q000191:economics*; D017057:Medically Uninsured / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017664:Uncompensated Care / Q000191:economics*; D014481:United States