Some hospitals, such asSt. Louis-based Barnes-Jewish Hospital, have started requiring all uninsured patients to pay a co-payment. Burlington, Vt.-based Fletcher Allen Health Care has also scaled back its charity care by reducing financial assistance on a sliding scale for uninsured patients whose incomes are 200 percent to 400 percent the poverty level, according to the report.
Although the goal of scaling back charity care is to push people to sign up for coverage, advocates for the uninsured fear many lower- and middle-income individuals will not receive the care they need because they cannot afford to buy insurance, even with the subsidies, according to the report.
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