SAN DIEGO: Health Care Industry Dominates Business Community

      The "business of keeping San Diego healthy ... dominates the list of the 25 largest private employers in the county"; six of the group are health care providers, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. Health care accounts for 28% of all full-time jobs in the county. University of California-San Diego Medical School professor Richard Kronick, a health care policy expert, said it is normal a large percentage of San Diego's jobs are in the health care arena, as any large metropolitan area would expect to have about 14% of its jobs in health care. But what boosts health care to such a prominent position in San Diego, according to Kronick, is the area's "futuristic outlook" in San Diego health care "is more integrated than in other places. We're on the cutting edge of managed care here, and the hospital systems have consolidated to a greater extent than elsewhere," he said (Hoffecker, 4/27).