The Sacramento area's population has grown rapidly in the past decade, and Sacramento residents have higher income, education, and private insurance coverage, and enjoy better overall health, than average for California.

To provide more perspective on the unique challenges facing Sacramento and other large health care markets in California, CHCF asked the Center for Studying Health System Change to produce a regional market study in six areas: Fresno, Los Angeles, Riverside/San Bernardino, Sacramento, San Diego, and the San Francisco Bay Area. These reports are published as part of CHCF's California Health Care Almanac.

Key findings of the Sacramento report include:

• All four major systems (Sutter Health Sacramento Sierra Region, Mercy Healthcare, Kaiser Permanente, and University of California Davis Health System) are nonprofit, financially strong, and stable
• Most physicians practice in large groups that are exclusively aligned with one of the hospital systems
• Although HMOs have lost clear dominance, they remain a strong presence in the Sacramento market
• The safety net is characterized by a fragmented group of small and financially fragile clinics that together offer limited outpatient capacity

The complete issue brief and an executive summary are available under Document Downloads. An addendum to the brief is included under Related CHCF Pages.