The movement to hold hospitals like Yale - New Haven accountable when they profit from non-profit status while failing in their mission to care for all patients goes national: A group of plaintiffs' lawyers filed civil lawsuits against more than a dozen nonprofit hospitals across the country yesterday, contending that the hospitals violated their obligation as charities by overcharging people without insurance and then hounding them for the money. The complaints name some of the largest hospitals in the Chicago, Atlanta and Minneapolis metropolitan areas. More lawsuits are expected to be filed, said Don Barrett, one of the lawyers involved in the cases. "It is part of a coordinated attack on this reprehensible practice," he said. The lawyers, some of whom were involved in litigation against the tobacco companies in the 1990's, are calling for the creation of a trust that would be financed by the hospitals and would provide affordable medical care for those without insurance. Because the hospitals have tax-exempt status and other benefits as nonprofit organizations, the lawyers argue that they have an obligation to provide affordable care to the uninsured.