How much medical care do the uninsured use, and who pays for it?

With the number of uninsured people exceeding forty-one million in 2001, insuring the uninsured is again a major policy issue. This analysis establishes benchmarks for the inevitable debate over the cost of expanding coverage: How much is being spent on care for the uninsured, and where does the money come from? This information is essential for assessing how much new money will be required for expanded coverage, how much can be reallocated from existing sources, and how a new financing system would redistribute the burden of subsidizing care for the uninsured from private to public sources.