I don't know why this is surprising, since it's purely an outgrowth government policies. The state mandates hospitals provide certain kinds of care without pro

I don't know why this is surprising, since it's purely an outgrowth government policies. The state mandates hospitals provide certain kinds of care without providing funds under EMTALA. That money has to come from somewhere, so it comes from the patients who can pay. Since insurance companies and the government can get negotiated rates (or just dictate rates, in the case of the government) the only people left to squeeze are people without insurance but with enough money to pay. What this map is really telling you is which hospitals have large concentrations of patients who can't pay for care. Before they shut down King-Drew Medical Center in LA six out of seven patients couldn't pay their bill, so if you showed up at the ER without insurance they were going to try to charge you enough to cover the six people in front of you.