I’m sorry Cardinal, but do you have any evidence to support this notion that “indigent” patients “widely abuse” the requirement that hospitals care for all who pass through their doors?
If there is any evidence of such abuse, what percent of overall health spending does it amount to?
Your statement sounds to me like one of those beliefs held by a number of people who think it sounds likely, but who have only anecdotal evidence to back them up.
I’ve worked in the field of health policy for over a dozen years, and I never saw any evidence that a people were deliberately taking advantage of the uncompensated care system. Hospitals have huge bureacracies designed to get everyone to pay. I suggest you look at data about bankruptcies in this country. Health care spending is, by far, the largest cause of bankruptcy. People are not being dishonest in their dealings with the health care system. They simply can’t afford it.
Fraud, if that’s what you’re thinking of, comes from another source. Crooked doctors and hospitals and crooked insurers, and scam artists team up to submit fraudulant bills for procedures that were never provided for illnesses that never existed. But in general, fraud is not nearly the problem that lack of care is. People delaying or avoiding health care because they think they can’t pay for it eventually ends up costing all taxpayers far more than a few patients deliberately not paying for care.