Health Myth #7: “The cost of uncompensated care for the uninsured significantly increases hospital costs.”

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Health Myth #7: “The cost of uncompensated care for the uninsured significantly increases hospital costs.”

This is the seventh in a series of commonly believed health myths based upon the research from Fox News analyst James Farrell.
More Information:
Hospitals provided about $35 billion in uncompensated care in 2008, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says.
Uncompensated care represented only 5% of total hospital revenues.
In addition, half of the $35 billionn in uncompensated hospital costs were offset by Medicare and Medicaid.
And the cost of uncompensated care for the uninsured is “unlikely to have a substantial effect on private payment rates,” the CBO says, adding that shifting costs from uninsured to private insurance premiums is “likely to be relatively small.”
Source: CBO, “Key Issues in Analyzing Major Health Insurance Proposals,” December 2008.
Here are the topics for the entire series:

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