Everybody has to realize that they have a stake in uncompensated care.

Hospitals were initially required to provide uncompensated care for 20 years after receiving funding.

All told, Stanford reported providing $44.8 million in uncompensated care in 1989.

Under the legislation, these costs of uncompensated care would be virtually eliminated.

And the costs are rising; in 2002, uncompensated care totaled $4.7 million.

This included nearly $13 million in charity and uncompensated care.

When charity or "uncompensated" care is not available, they sometimes simply go without needed medical treatment.

The cost of such uncompensated care has been high ever since the city's main public hospital closed in 1977.

The limit on such payments will be 1.75 times the cost of a hospital's "uncompensated care," for which no reimbursement was received.

Commitments to current patients will put the total first-year cost for uncompensated care at $5 million.