81.   It is impossible to assess how much of the improvement that has taken place in the public hospital system might have come about because of the threat of privatization.

82.   It enables him to continue to pursue his longtime goal of reducing what he insists are overstaffed and underused public hospitals.

83.   It is the most striking example of the city demanding better services from the private medical centers that staff its public hospitals.

84.   It seems certain that there will soon be fewer public hospitals.

85.   It was done to determine whether the difference in death rates of newborns could be attributed entirely to the greater poverty and illness of patients at public hospitals.

86.   It would be the first merger of its kind by any city in the United States to rescue a public hospital, Boston officials said.

87.   Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg suggested public hospitals might refuse to treat homosexuals under the measure.

88.   Kerndt said he believes HIV tests should be offered routinely in some public hospital emergency rooms and also to pregnant women.

89.   Kominski said that taxpayers currently pick up the tab for uninsured Latinos, who turn to public hospitals and health facilities for medical care.

90.   Larry S. Gage, president of the National Association of Public Hospitals, said the higher payments were justified because public hospitals had higher costs.