San Francisco Bay Area Non-Profit Hospital Net Assets (Financial Strength) Have More Than Doubled (Up 111%) Since 2008 Financial Meltdown

Since the February 15, 2015 deadline for signups for the US Federal and the many US State Heath Insurance Exchanges is only 4 days away, I think it would be helpful to analyze just how financially successful California Non-Profit Hospital Organizations have been.

The single clearly most relevant measure of the financial strength of a US Hospital Organization is its level of Net Assets ..... or the Excess of its Total Hospital Organization's Assets Over its Total Hospital Liabilities.

From a thorough review of the excellent Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA), I found 11 Non-Profit Hospital Organizations with a heavy presence in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area and which had Total Net Assets of more than $400 mil.

These 11 largest Greater San Francisco Bay Area Non-Profit Hospital Organizations had Total Net Assets of $52.8 bil at the most recent date their financial statements disclosed them, which was a 111% increase from such comparable $25.1 bil amount at their fiscal year ends which included the 2008-09 US Financial Meltdown.

It should be pointed out that the majority of the below most recent Net Asset amounts are at September 30, 2014.  When the final December 31, 2014 Net Asset amounts are disclosed, the above 111% increase will turn out to be much higher.

Below here are the Net Asset amounts at these two dates for these 11 largest Greater San Francisco Bay Area Non-Profit Hospital Organizations:

							Net	Net
							Assets	Assets
						FYE	FYE	%
						Balance	Balance	Increase
						Sheet	Sheet	Since
				Most		Date	Date	FYE
			Most	Recent		Including	Including	Including
			Recent	Balance		2008-09	2008-09	2008-09
			Balance	Sheet		US	US	US
	City	State	Sheet	Net		Financial	Financial	Financial
California Non-Profit Hospital Organization	HQs	HQs	Date	Assets		Meltdown	Meltdown	Meltdown
				mil $s			mil $s
Kaiser Permanente	Oakland	CA	Sep 14	25,909		Dec 08	11,431	127%
Sutter Health	Sacramento	CA	Sep 14	8,520		Dec 08	4,298	98%
Dignity Health	San Francisco	CA	Sep 14	7,081		Jun 09	3,622	95%
Stanford Health Care	Stanford	CA	Nov 14	2,742		Aug 09	807	240%
Packard Children's Hospital Stanford	Palo Alto	CA	Nov 14	1,907		Aug 09	1,068	79%
Adventist Health West	Roseville	CA	Sep 14	1,601		Dec 08	969	65%
John Muir Health	Walnut Creek	CA	Sep 14	1,491		Dec 08	756	97%
U Cal, San Fran Medical Center	San Francisco	CA	Jun 13	1,323		Jun 09	761	74%
El Camino Hhealthcare District	Mountain View	CA	Jun 14	1,103		Jun 09	685	61%
Community Hospital Foundation	Monterey	CA	Jun 14	693		Dec 08	341	103%
Fremont-Rideout Health Group	Yuba City	CA	Dec 14	459		Jun 09	313	47%
Total all 11				52,829			25,051	111%

The single number that will determine by far more than any other one number just how successful the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will turn out to be in the long run is the Hospital Net Asset (Financial Strength) amount and its change over time.  This Hospital Net Asset number and its change over time has already driven and will continue to drive how expensive health insurance premiums will be, including insurance premiums on the both the US Federal and the many US State Health Insurance Exchanges under the ACA.  And this Hospital Net Asset number and its change over time has already driven and will also continue to drive the Total US Health Care Cost Curve.

As you can see from the above chart, the Total Net Assets (Financial Strength) of these 11 largest Greater San Francisco Bay Area Non-Profit Hospital Organizations totaled a huge $52.8 bil, up a massive 111% from such Total Net Asset amounts of $25.1 bil at their fiscal year ends which included the 2008-09 US Financial Meltdown.  This is a very good sign for just how successful the ACA has been so far and also how very successful it will turn out to be in the long run.

With such incredibly impressive Hospital Net Asset percentage increases in California and all throughout the US, a key beneficiary of this will be US citizens who have elected or will be electing to buy health insurance on the US Federal and US States Health Insurance Exchanges.  This superb Net Asset growth has given and will continue to give these US Hospitals the financial flexibility to moderate their pricing for hospital and other health care procedures in their negotiations with health insurance companies which ultimately determines what insurance premium prices are set at by health insurance companies on the Health Insurance Exchanges.