31.   But public hospitals do more than just care for the uninsured.

32.   But like many public hospitals, its emergency rooms are often overcrowded, which seems to be behind many of the failures cited in the federal report.

33.   But she said that no city had eliminated a public hospital system entirely.

34.   But the mayor and Ms. Mitchell have made no secret of their impatience with the public hospital system, relentlessly pushing for better and more cost effective care.

35.   But the policy on primary care has left public hospitals straining to care for surging numbers of women, children and people with AIDS, the commission found.

36.   Butler said he repudiated the deal because, in his view, it would have hurt the public hospitals even while rescuing some workers from layoffs by redeploying them.

37.   Commissioner Peter McLaughlin of Hennepin County, Minn., said property taxes in communities supporting public hospitals will go up.

38.   Cohen is now the medical director of Bronx Municipal Hospital Center, another public hospital.

39.   Council leaders said public hospitals could not be sold or leased without their approval.

40.   Detroit, Louisville, Ky., and Cuyahoga County, Ohio, have shed public hospitals in recent years.