Health workers' union pushes hospital cost control in CA

A California health care workers' union is collecting signatures to get two measures onto the ballot that it says would lower health care costs. United Health Care Workers West, or SEIU-UHW, wants to cap what hospitals can charge to 25 percent above the actual cost of services. SEIU-UHW says on average, hospitals charge 320 percent above the cost of care. The union also wants to cap CEO salaries at nonprofit hospitals to $450,000 a year. "These two [initiatives] in combination will do more to bring down the cost of health care than anything else that's been considered recently in California or anyplace else," says SEIU-UHW President Dave Regan.