September 24, 2007 (LPAC)--While California's Governator postures on his proposed "bipartisan" health care proposal mooting a special session of the California Legislature, the Los Angeles Times of Sept. 23 in a continuing series of articles reporting on the crisis in health care infrastructure in Los Angeles County area reports that private hospitals accounting for 15% of the beds in the region are in dire financial straits, raising the possibility of additional delays in already overburdened emergency rooms, longer ambulance rides and reduced access to care. The article reports that since 1996, more than 70 community hospitals have closed across the state, over 50 of these in Southern California and that while well known facilities in affluent areas are seeing rises in profits smaller hospitals in "have not" areas are losing as much as tens of millions of dollars apiece as the uninsured and underinsured flock to these remaining institutions and federal and state payments are reduced. The recent closing of Martin Luther-King Harbor Hospital, a comprehensive teaching hospital set up to bring state of the art medical care to the poor in the Watts area in the early 1970's, has alone left remaining institutions to absorb the 47,000 patients that used its emergency room annually.