New York State Hospitals Charge Uninsured Patients Twice As Much

According to a study released by Citizen Action of New York, New York state hospitals charge uninsured patients twice as much as they charge patients with insurance for the same care. Now, to be fair, I would venture to say that this is probably true in most states, not just New York, but the study focused solely on New York pricing, so that is the only state where we can definitively say that it is true. The reason why uninsured individuals pay more is because insurance companies and government programs like Medicare and Medicaid negotiate discounted rates with hospitals. Those who do not have insurance do not have the ability to negotiate the rate charged for their care and thus must pay full list price.

The study also shows that patients in the Albany region pay $26 million more than the actual cost of care they receive - hospitals have to charge more than the actual cost of services in order to make up for the money they lose when uninsured patients are unable to pay for their care.