Hospital Clout Spurs Higher California Health Costs, Study Says

Bloomberg reports:

Don’t blame only insurers for rising health-care costs, a study in the journal Health Affairs says.

California’s hospital fees surged 10.6 percent from 1999 to 2005, more than twice the national average, as the state’s biggest hospital networks began to demand higher rates from insurance companies, according to the report released today.

By exerting their market clout, the systems led by the five University of California medical centers may be as responsible for cost inflation as Kaiser-Permanente, the nation’s largest health maintenance organization, the study said. In the same period, state lawmakers also passed regulations that made it difficult for insurers to cut off subscribers’ access to doctors and hospitals, no matter their fees.

For University of California medical centers it's kind of like a tuition increase without the Pell Grants.