Hospital Funds

Re “Care, Not Hospital Size,” editorial, June 21: You assert that “many nonprofit hospitals in the county that receive substantial tax breaks for operating in the public interest do not in fact accept many indigent patients.” On what facts do you base this assertion? Just how much free care do you believe a tax-exempt hospital should provide?

You also urge “state legislators should wield a powerful tool--the public Medi-Cal and Medicare funding that private and nonprofit hospitals receive--to compel these institutions to accept more indigent patients.” Public (county) hospitals are tax-exempt, yet they receive direct funding to cover the cost of treating indigent patients in addition to Medi-Cal and Medicare funding. Why should we have a double standard? Why not fix the root problem by passing initiatives that provide coverage for the one-third of L.A. County residents under age 65 who have no insurance coverage? Then we would not have to concern ourselves with the size of any county hospital system.

JIM LOTT

Executive Vice President

Healthcare Assn. of So. Calif.

Los Angeles