re: Louisana Blue leads the way...

quote:

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"The worry was that a hospital, for instance, would sign up and pay (Obamacare) premiums for their uninsured patients," said law professor Mark Hall of Wake Forest University. If a hospital also steered patients toward an insurer that includes it in its network, the hospital would turn a charity patient into a paying one, something CMS regards as a form of prohibited self-dealing.

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Wait a minute. So it's preferable that the patient remain uninsured and untreated, rather than have a hospital pay the premium and then...**GASP**...profit from it?

ETA: I understand the Stark implications this raises and its potential for abuse, but for specfic, dibilitating disease groups this is not an unreasonable solution. Who else has the incentive to pay their premiums if the patients can't?