A point made last week at the Nebraska Health Summit deserves to be shouted from the rooftops.

Nebraskans already are paying a hidden tax to cover the health care costs of the one out of nine Nebraskans who are uninsured.

Remember that the next time the topic of health care reform comes up.

Maybe then the price tag for reform won’t seem quite as daunting.

The hidden tax is collected when hospitals and physicians pass on the costs of providing care to uninsured and underinsured patients to private insurers, who in turn pass the costs along to businesses and individuals who pay premiums.

The hidden tax is massive, according to the Nebraska Health Care Reform Task Force.

In 2007 the task force estimated the hidden tax for hospital care at almost $1 billion, or 7.7 percent of total health care costs in Nebraska.

And that’s not all.

“If one assumes that physicians shift costs proportionate to those of hospitals, this would amount to $545 million in 2007 for a total cost shift of $1.485 billion or 12.2 percent of total personal health care costs of Nebraskans,” the task force report said.

Task force co-chairman Dr. Richard O’Brien said the hidden tax added $918 to an insured family’s yearly health insurance premiums.

Although almost everyone agrees that the nation’s health care system is dysfunctional and unsustainable, consensus on the right approach has proved elusive.

But, as the recent Nebraska Health Summit showed, pressure for reform continues to build at the grass-roots level.

Three states — Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont — have gone ahead with their own plans for providing universal coverage.

The task force concluded that of the three alternatives for universal coverage — government-provided care, tax-funded insurance coverage, or mandatory private health insurance — Nebraskans are most likely to support the latter.

The task force suggests that all the state’s residents be required to have a basic health insurance plan that includes preventive services, mental health care, dental care and long-term care. The insurance plan could be purchased by either employers or individuals.

The Nebraska Medical Society released a poll at the summit showing that three out of four Nebraskans say they favor state-mandated private insurance.

Nonetheless, the looming sticking point is the price tag that likely is to be attached to the plan because of the need to offer subsidies to low-income residents.

That’s why the point that Nebraskans already are paying a hidden tax deserves to be emphasized.