An automatically applied surcharge on patients with private insurance to make up for patients who don't have it has topped $1,000 per family per year, according to a national health-care research and advocacy group.

The "hidden health tax" has increased by nearly 10 percent the past four years, and it is likely to increase as much again in the near future as the wave of job losses due to the tanking economy continues, according to a study released Thursday by Families USA.

As the ranks of uninsured Americans — now around 46 million — swell, those with insurance end up paying more, Families USA executive director Ron Pollack said in a national telephone news conference Thursday.

The uncompensated care cost in 2008 was $1,017 per privately insured family and $368 per insured single person. The figures take into account those covered by taxpayer-underwritten government coverage Medicare and Medicaid.

"Due to the economic downturn, more and more people are losing their jobs and their health-care coverage," Pollack said. "As a result, it is highly likely that the hidden health tax for 2009, which is not yet known, will be considerably higher than the $1,017 amount experienced in 2008."

The hidden health tax is the undisclosed insurance premium surcharge paid by America's businesses and insured families when they purchase health insurance. That surcharge subsidizes the uncompensated health-care costs of the uninsured.

"That tax hits America's businesses and insured families hard in the pocketbook, and they therefore have a clear financial stake in expanding health-care coverage as part of health reform," Pollack said.

Just because people don't have insurance doesn't mean they don't seek medical care, said U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. "Today 46 million uninsured Americans turn to emergency rooms when they need medical care, and the cost of that care is paid for by every American with insurance. As this report shows, that hidden tax will only continue to grow unless we do something about it."

Not only are Americans with insurance in effect paying more for care that amounts to $2.4 trillion a year nationally, those without insurance also are adding to the cost because they don't seek care until a condition becomes more serious and more expensive, he said.

About one-third of the cost is paid for by the uninsured themselves and another third by government supplemental programs and charity programs.

That left $42.7 billion in 2008 as uncompensated care was shifted onto the health-care bills of insured people, ultimately resulting in the hidden health tax through higher premiums.

e-mail: jthalman@desnews.com