"The state of New Jersey has a program to provide reimbursements to
hospitals and other health-care institutions which provide
uncompensated or undercompensated health care to patients lacking
private health insurance whose income falls below a certain amount but
is too high to qualify them for Medicaid and are not old enough to be
eligible for Medicare (New Jersey's situation is somewhat unique among
American states in that the state has no county or municipal
hospitals).

The scheme provides free health care to uninsured state residents
whose income is up to 200%% of the federally designated poverty line,
and provides discounts which gradually phase out at incomes between
200%% and 300%% of the poverty line; the patient's liquid assets (not
including the patient's home and one automobile) must not exceed
$7,500. Also, the maximum any individual qualifying for aid under the
aforementioned criteria can be liable for in a single year is 30%% of
that patient's gross income for that year. A special fund compensates
the health-care provider—which may have furnished either inpatient or
outpatient services—for the applicable difference in cost.

Some private health-care providers in other states—particularly those
that are operated on a nonprofit basis (often by religious entities)—
also provide free and/or low-cost health care to uninsured patients,
using income thresholds similar to those observed statewide in New
Jersey; but state laws vary widely as to how much, if any,
reimbursement (usually in the form of tax credits) the institution
receives for so doing (and in only one other state besides New Jersey—
Washington—does an outright mandate exist to provide charity care).
Perhaps the most famous example of such an institution is the Charity
Hospital of New Orleans, founded in 1732 and now run by the Medical
Center of Louisiana.

In 2007 the community hospitals in Washington State agreed to uniform
standards for providing free and reduced cost care to low-income
individuals. The new standards were less generous than existing
practice for four out of ten community hospitals, but is stronger than
existing state law. Care is free for families with incomes below the
federal poverty level. Between one and two times the federal poverty
level patients may buy care at cost; between two and three times the
federal poverty level uninsured patients are charged no more than what
an average insured patient would pay.[6]

Many political moderates in the United States point to the success of
the New Jersey program, and recommend its adoption at the federal
level as an alternative to national health-insurance proposals
advocated by many liberals."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charity_care