And, frankly, part of it is because hospitals can’t refuse care to anyone and if they can’t pay, someone else has to.
I think that's a cheap excuse they have to rip off everybody else. I would like to see the actual numbers of people who aren't paying and what losses they incur.
https://www.aha.org/data-insights/2018-01-03-uncompensated-h...
Somewhere in the ballpark of $40 billion dollars a year vs total revenues in the ballpark of $3 trillion. Various aspects of Obamacare had the effect of leveling them off.
There is likely additional underpayment due to Medicaid and Medicare (to the extent those programs are underfunded and operate by mandating care, they are a hidden tax).
There's benefit for everybody, which is risk reduction. You actually blame poor people for going to the ER in case of emergency.
As far as I can tell the problem is really the big HMOs seem to be essentially managing another companies money, rather than their own, and they essentially get a cut of money going in and out of them.