Quote:

A 2003 study in Health Affairs estimated that uninsured people in the U.S. received approximately $35 billion in uncompensated care in 2001.[82] The study noted that this amount per capita was half what the average insured person received. The study found that various levels of government finance most uncompensated care, spending about $30.6 billion on payments and programs to serve the uninsured and covering as much as 80–85% of uncompensated care costs through grants and other direct payments, tax appropriations, and Medicare and Medicaid payment add-ons. Most of this money comes from the federal government, followed by state and local tax appropriations for hospitals. Another study by the same authors in the same year estimated the additional annual cost of covering the uninsured (in 2001 dollars) at $34 billion (for public coverage) and $69 billion (for private coverage). These estimates represent an increase in total health care spending of 3–6% and would raise health care’s share of GDP by less than one percentage point, the study concluded.[83] Another study published in the same journal in 2004 estimated that the value of health forgone each year because of uninsurance was $65–$130 billion and concluded that this figure constituted "a lower-bound estimate of economic losses resulting from the present level of uninsurance nationally."[84] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_...#The_uninsured

Quote:

Up to $49 billion unpaid by uninsured for hospitalizations By Kelly Kennedy, USA TODAY Updated 5/13/2011 4:41 PM " WASHINGTON — Uninsured Americans — including those with incomes well above the poverty line — leave hospitals with unpaid tabs of up to $49 billion a year, according to a USA TODAY analysis of government statistics. On average, uninsured families can pay only about 12% of their hospital bills in full. Families with incomes above 400% of the poverty level, or about $88,000 a year for a family of four, pay about 37% of their hospital bills in full, "Jack Hadley, senior health services researcher at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., pointed out that uninsured people are charged as much as two-thirds more than what insured people are charged because insurers are able to negotiate prices. His research has found that privately insured individuals don't end up paying higher premiums to make up for the uninsured because hospitals that serve lower-income families don't have a lot of patients with insurance. He said the government pays about 75% of those unpaid hospital bills either by direct payment or through a disproportionate payment of Medicaid. "It affects taxes, not premiums," he said. "The privately insured are still paying for it." " http://www.usatoday.com/news/washing...al-bills_n.htm

The Federal government is paying for uninsured medical care with tax money now. So, exactly how would making mandatory insurance make taxes worse?

It should lower federal subsidies for the payment of the uninsured medical costs to all taxpayers.

If federal and state hospitals are required by law to render emergency treatment to all then they need compensation by taxpayers and what little is available from charity.

All of taxpayers support these hospitals in some way now. What we have is a bassakwards system of unsocial medicine in the USA and it is severely broken.