Commentary by Justin Stofferahn

Northern Californians pay 70% more for inpatient care than Southern Californians, according to a 2018 study by the University of California, Berkeley School of Health.

A key reason: The market power of companies like Sutter Health — the massive health conglomerate that has come to dominate Northern California through a steady diet of mergers and acquisitions.

During a 2020 CBS interview regarding an antitrust lawsuit he had filed against Sutter, then-California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said, “Sutter got big enough that it could use its market power to dominate, to dictate.”

That health system now wants to come to Minnesota — aiming to acquire Minnesota-based Allina Health system — and continue what economist Glenn Melnick called a “model of reducing competition to raise prices.”

Sutter is not alone. Sanford Health in South Dakota — fresh off a failed attempt to acquire Fairview — wants to purchase North Memorial. This has been the trend in Minnesota, particularly among hospitals. In 2000, the state had 68 independent hospitals compared to 67 affiliated with a larger system. Today just 29% are independent. In exchange, hospital prices have nearly tripled, outpacing other headline-grabbing healthcare cost increases like prescription drugs according to the Tobin Center for Economic Policy at Yale. Hospital prices have also risen faster than college tuition, childcare and food.

Read the rest of the story at https://minnesotareformer.com/2026/06/08/minnesota-can-resist-healthcare-monopolization-and-the-higher-prices-that-come-with-it/