[rgbrenner]

Insurance companies don't insure the unemployed for free. They're either paying their own premiums, or they're on medicaid/medicare. If they're on medicaid, it was paid for by the state/fed government from taxes... not from insurance premiums paid by someone else.

[maxerickson]

The cost of Medicaid and Medicare may show up in insurance premiums.

http://kff.org/report-section/uncompensated-care-for-the-uni...

There are other discussions of cost shifting that will make more aggressive claims; I've chosen to link Kaiser Family Foundation because I think they are pretty credible.

[rgbrenner]

the amount potentially associated with uncompensated care cost shifting is only 2.3 percent of private health insurance costs in 2013.

[maxerickson]

Sure, it doesn't explain the high cost of care.

But the $21.1 billion out of $84.9 billion is a pretty big chunk of the unmet costs.