The real problems here especially with emergency care are that hospitals are forced to eat the cost of treating non insured patients That problem is not unique

The real problems here especially with emergency care are that hospitals are forced to eat the cost of treating non insured patients That problem is not unique to hospitals and emergency centers. My father runs a private practice and he can't collect payment on a double digit percentage of patients. Yet, because he is a private practice, he gets compensated significantly less than a hospital for same procedures. I am not convinced that the root cause of high hospital cost is to make up for patients that don't pay. It seems to be a circular argument given that a decent percentage of patients can't pay because the cost is so high.