issue, or at least begin discussion of the issue of hospital market consolidation in san francisco between northern california -- in northern california between 1990 and 2010. thank you for being here today. >> [inaudible] supervisor campos: [laughter] yes. >> [inaudible] oh, thank you. hello again. in the co-director of the center for policy analysis. i have a doctorate and master's degree in public health. i believe the reason -- the reason i'm here today as i have worked on health care reform at the national level in the u.s. senate and the 1990's and more recently on this effort. also here in san francisco in the 1980's between the master's and ph.d. in the senate, i helped organize a group in san francisco called the community health coalition, which advocated for the department of public health's budget. i share with some of the people in this room is a memory of some of the hospitals and capacity that i'm going to talk to you about. i'm really just going to remind us what hospital capacity use to look like and what it looks like now, largely to make the point that as we started discussing, the issues o

driver of the cost differentiation between northern and southern california, what does this show about that? >> certainly, there is a big difference. for san francisco, it is 123%, so it is 23% hired to run a hospital here than it does in los angeles. the cost of running it. the same hospital from los angeles, move it here, same staff, everything, 23% more. so there is a cost of living difference reflected in those prices. but as you will see, the bottom half of this slide, we are looking at commercial prices. what do health plans pay? los angeles, commercial plans on average $4135,0035,000. that is before you adjust for cost differences. the next slide takes into account that if the mover hospital from los angeles to san francisco, it costs more. again, looking at the right hand side, that difference of 170% to 140% drops, but not to 0. it is still 38% higher in sacramento and san francisco. supervisor campos: even after adjusting. >> right, for those input costs. this gives you some order of magnitude of the difference in prices after you have adjusted for input costs. so hospital market power and consolidation. providers can use market power to s

between services in northern california and southern california. in fact, in a recent article, the "los angeles times" reported that where hospitals in san francisco get on average $7,349 per patient per day, hospitals in los angeles county by comparison only receive $4,389. that is about $3,000 in difference. in san bernardino county, the figure is actually $3,931. both aetna inc. and blue shield say they charge higher rates to customers in northern california. they actually acknowledge that. then they do customers in southern california. aetna charges 30% more. blue shield says it charges up to 40% more. that comes directly from them. the issue becomes especially urgent, as the city has before it a proposal by one of the hospitals, by california pacific medical center, to build a 555- bed hospital in the cathedral hill. let me be clear -- the focus of this hearing is not that project. that project is going through the approval process and will duly come before the planning commission and the board of supervisors, and we, as members of the board, cannot prejudge that project, but we do need to understand what is happening in the context of this i

northern california women between 1977 and 1994. detectives say he lived in an apartment building in san francisco's mission neighborhood back in 1981ey say he filled three notebooks describing how he wanted to describe margaret pristol. she lived downtown down stairs. he made a to-do list of women he wanted to kill. she was number ten on the list. he moved away in 1992 and she and her husband called him crazy joe. >> it's going to take long than they thought to get the nuclear power plant in control in japan. >> and tomorrow, marks the anniversary of the great earthquake. next, how one of the last remaining survivors plans to mark the 1906 quake. switching to progressive could mean hundreds more in your wallet year after year. feed me! saving you money -- now, that's progressive. call or click today. you want that? you want a warm, super-delicious strawberry toaster strudel yeah but now i have nothing to eat sureou do. hey! you can have the pop tart! pillsbury toaster strudel. the one kids want to eat than listening there'to our favorite songs. there's nothing we love more than listening to our favorite songs. but our favorite thin

between systems. a coastal to the south and this morning into northern california now. we jumped into the 50s, we jump into the upper 60s this afternoon. 61 in san franciscoest weather. >> thank you so much, al. up next, how to wear the hottest spring trend. that's after t es 3q ( woman ) even with an overactive bladder, i don't always let the worry my pipes might leak compromise what i like to do. i take care with vesicare, because i have better places to visit than just the bathroom. ( announcer ) once-daily vesicare can help control your bladder muscle, and is proven to treat overactive bladder with symptoms of frequent urges and leaks, day and night. if you have certain stomach or glaucoma problems, or trouble emptying your bladder, do not take vesicare. vesicare may cause allergic reactions that may be serious. if you experience swelling of the face, lips, throat or tongue, stop taking vesicare and get emergency help. tell your doctor right away if you have severe abdominal pain or become constipated for three or more days. vesicare may cause blurred vision, so use caution while driving or doing unsafe tasks. common side effects are dry mouth, consti