Consumer advocates contend that what an uninsured person actually pays depends on the patient's ability to fight and the hospital's whim.

Yet only municipal hospitals offer treatment to every uninsured person who shows up.

Texas spends more than $1,000 per uninsured person every year on free care.

If the Government provided coverage similar to what the average employer now offers, it would cost $2,000 a year for each uninsured person.

During a debate in September Wolf Blitzer asked him whether he thought a sick and uninsured person should just be left to die.

Today, if an uninsured person needs treatment, he or she can find it only in a hospital emergency room.

With President Clinton's reform plan, that fifth, uninsured person will contribute something for care.

"Once for their own employees and again as costs of treating uninsured persons are factored into reimbursement rates."

In areas where managed care is more highly developed, it is more difficult for uninsured persons to get care.