A Cook County commissioner will introduce a bill next week that will require hospitals to spend as much as 4.5 percent of their annnual budget on charity care.

Currently, hospitals are required to provide emergency treatment for patients who can't pay. But they face no requirement to provide a specific amount of free care.

Under the legislation authored by Commissioner Roberto Maldonado, safety net hospitals - those that treat a disproportionate number of patients without private coverage - would have to devote 2.8 percent of their budget to charity care. 

Some other hospitals would be required to provide charity care totalling 4.5 percent of their budget.

Maldonado says the measure will increase access to affordable health care, reduce aggressive hospital billing practices and improve the health of poor county residents, who he says are often treated badly by hospitals.

But opponents say it's a misguided attempt to label hospitals as bad neighbors. Last year, the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council released a report that showed county hospitals provided more than $850 million in charity care.

Critics of the way local hospitals treat the poor have been vocal in decrying what they say is a pattern of hospitals ignoring their responsibility to the poor, by aggressively pursuing payment or passing patients off to Stroger Hospital.