I doubt only lower income people are caught up in the high deductible, high premium, no subsidy nightmare of the bronze tier of Obamacare. The difference is that most of those who are not considered low incomes will have bank accounts and other means by which the centers can collect on past due bills.
When these patients face high out-of-pocket costs for care that falls below the deductible, they can’t afford it.
So the centers are subsidizing that care by offering them means-tested sliding-scale fees. When the centers, which are not allowed to turn away patients for inability to pay, try to get the insurers to pay, the claims are usually denied, and the centers have to write it off as uncompensated care.
So what they are saying is the insurance isn’t paying for it because they have high deductibles and haven’t met them yet......and the deadbeats aren’t paying their part of the deductible to the centers.
Of course they are making it sound like it is all the insurance companies fault for not paying for the deductible.