system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Explain how "currently in the US whenever someone without insurance uses emergency medical services to save their life, how do the taxpayers end up paying for it"?

Just how exactly does this work? The (in)famous court case kinda only cited it, didn't really explain how.
gpt
Let's say John Smith doesn't have health insurance.  He runs into a medical emergency (maybe a car accident) and goes to the ER.  He makes OK money, but he can't afford the $60,000 bill they slap him with.  So, the hospital negotiates with him and waves all their fees.  He just has to pay for the doctor, the medication, and the tests.  The hospital still has to make money, but it waves or renegotiates fees with uninsured people all the time.  So, they raise costs across the board for others.  

Now, let's say Fred Johnson doesn't have health insurance, and he is very poor.  He's had some health problems but hasn't gone to the doctor to get them looked at because he can't afford it.  He keeps putting it off until it's an emergency.  He goes to the ER, and they have to admit him.  Bills end up running about $100,000.  He has no hope of paying those off, so he doesn't pay any of it.  Well, if he had gotten preventative care and had gone to a doctor when the problems first started, it might have cost a couple hundred bucks.  Now, the debt is $100,000.  He's not paying for it, so who eats those costs?  Everyone else who goes to the ER.  The hospital, the doctors, the drug companies, etc... none of htem get paid for what was done for the patient.  So, prices are raised on everyone else who can pay.

The new health care mandate is going to make it so both John and Fred have insurance.  John makes enough money to pay for health insurance.  Now, he has to.  Fred does not make enough money to pay for health insurance.  Before, single men (even if they were very poor) could not get Medicaid for insurance.  Now, if they make under a certain amount of money, single men can get health insurance.  Fred might get Medicaid insurance now, or he can buy private insurance, and because he doesn't make much money, the government will give him a credit on his taxes every year to pay for most of the cost of his insurance.  Tax payers are basically paying for Fred to get insurance, but now Fred can get medical care when his problems first arise, when they're not expensive, instead of waiting to go to the ER when it is an expensive medical emergency.

Before, John Smith wasn't paying for health insurance.  Now, he is.  By paying the premiums as a healthy man, he is now helping insurance companies to pay for the preventative care of people like Fred Johnson.  Initially, expenses might go up as Fred and people like Fred all go in for doctors' visits for the first time in years.  Before long, expenses are going to go way down because insurance companies will be paying less money for emergency care.  Hospitals are not going to have to write off almost any hospital visits because almost everyone will ahve insurance.