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The average insured American family pays an average of $1,017 a year extra in health insurance premiums unofficially known as the 'hidden health tax.' The tax comes from the need to pay off the leftovers in health care coverage for the uninsured, which costs health care providers about $42.7 billion a year. This cost usually gets shifted to insurers, and from there turned into higher insurance premiums (or 'the hidden health tax'). Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, says that as the recession leaves more and more American families uninsured, the health tax is going up, giving insured families and businesses good fiscal reasons for backing expanded health care coverage. 45.7 million people nationwide currently do not have health insurance, and the number is expected to get worse in the coming months.