What fuels the positive attitude with respect to pricing and the labor component?
Mr. Lehrich: We have a solid window into commercial pricing remaining firm for the next two to three years. The managed care health insurance pricing cycle has been on a nice uptrend. We have strong visibility into mid-teens premium yield increases for 2002, and probably another round of healthy increases in 2003. The leverage with the providers for the foreseeable future is a function of bigger market scale, more important market share in key markets and just overall greater leverage, given the round of portfolio rationalization that we saw throughout the late 1990s, particularly among the larger hospital chains. On the volume side, we’re just starting to see the power of the baby boomer demographic actually play into the numbers. That demographic offers a very durable and consistent demand picture for healthcare services and particularly for the hospitals. Hospitals will be an important beneficiary. For example, inpatient utilization jumps 20% when you move from the 45-year-old demog
