ALL MAY PAY FOR UNINSURED GREATER ER USE DRIVES UP HOSPITALS' EXPENSES.

Byline: Evan Pondel Staff Writer

Providing health care coverage for 6.3 million uninsured Californians would cost about $7.4 billion, a mere fraction compared with the industry's total expenditures, according to a new study.

As the number of uninsured Californians and their need for emergency services grow, so does the cost of health care for employers and their insured workers. That's because more emergency services take their toll on hospital costs. As health-care companies grapple with those costs, premiums are sent aloft.

With Californians under 65 spending approximately $61.8 billion annually on health care, that number could be stabilized if more of the uninsured had coverage, said Gerald Kominski, co-author of the new study and a professor at the Center for Health Policy Research at the University of California, Los Angeles.

``There would be an offset in costs in the sense that hospitals would no longer need to provide the same level of free or charity care,'' Kominski said.

The study's findings also suggest that Senate Bill 2, which would require employers to provide some form of health insurance, could also reduce the number of uninsured Californians. But the law doesn't encompass employers with less than 50 workers, and offering subsidies may be the only way to insure that population, Kominski said.

The cost of a health plan is still among the greatest obstacles when it comes to coverage. Adult Californians will spend an estimated $2,793 for health insurance this year, while those without insurance are likely to spend about $963 out of pocket for health care, according to the study.

Covering children is also pricey. A year of insurance costs about $1,429, compared with $726 spent out of pocket for an uninsured child.

To offset this disparity, Kominski said programs such as Medi-Cal should be better utilized, resulting in more federal funding. He also said creating tax breaks for those businesses that otherwise cannot afford health insurance is yet another method to stimulate more coverage.

But Michael Chee, a spokesman for Blue Cross of California, said providing coverage for the uninsured is not so simple.

There are myriad variables when determining whether a population can afford health insurance. ``And it becomes especially complex when you mandate things, telling people what they have to buy or what they have to have,'' Chee said.

From health plan providers' perspective, education is the easiest way to tap the uninsured. At least half of the uninsured in California can afford coverage, and ``those are the people we need to go after,'' Chee said.

Health-plan providers have become particularly aggressive in marketing to the Latino community. Several insurers began accepting identification cards issued by the Mexican consulate last year. Banks have also been accepting these cards as valid forms of identification.

While access to health care may be improving, consumers are also confronting an increase in bogus insurance policies. More than 140 unauthorized entities sold coverage in the United States to at least 15,000 employers between 2000 and 2002, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office.

Chee said insurance companies are attempting to educate consumers, but consumers also must seek out information on their own. ``There are thousands of small businesses that don't realize state law guarantees health insurance. And that their rates cannot change beyond plus or minus 10 percent of the average,'' he said. ``The one argument people still throw up is that health insurance is too expensive. But it's not for a certain portion of the population.''

Evan Pondel, [phone]

evan.pondel(at)dailynews.com