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    Health Aff (Millwood). 2008 Sep-Oct;27(5):w399-415. Epub 2008 Aug 25.

    Covering the uninsured in 2008: current costs, sources of payment, and incremental costs.

    Hadley J, Holahan J, Coughlin T, Miller D.

    Health Administration and Policy, George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, USA. jhgmu@yahoo.com

    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.

    PMID: 18725375 [PubMed - in process]

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