Leah, let me say that while I love Providence, have had family work at Providence, and generally consider it the best hospital in the region, Providence also does manage to make money hand over fist. When I moved here in '96 PAMC was Towers A-C and a parking garage. In 20 years, PAMC has almost tripled in size, with many new towers, and a sprawling complex. Additionally Providence has opened many satellite centers in Mat-Su and other areas.

Yes, they do some charitable work for Alaskans that can't afford medical procedures, but lets not act like they aren't making buckets of money that they simply find a way to spend to maintain "not for profit" tax status.

As for cost, shipping does not account for that much, especially when its bulk and barged. COL does not really effect the cost of medical procedures either. The fact is we pay much more in cost than is really reasonable for our location and ease of access.