Growing pressure by Government and private insurers for lower health care prices is expected to squeeze profits for both investor-owned and nonprofit hospitals.

Some say that it's dim, that as pressure mounts to push costs down, investor-owned hospitals will lose out.

But critics say the investor-owned hospitals' wave has crested.

The study said investor-owned hospitals provided as much care for indigent people as the nonprofits.

In Florida, where investor-owned hospitals are especially strong, they provided less than a fifth the rate of charity care as the nonprofits in 1992.

New York requires a certificate of need and generally prohibits investor-owned hospitals, so for-profit ventures have not been as significant an issue.

But after years of growth, investor-owned hospitals are running into problems.

At investor-owned hospitals, the outlook is brighter, because many of them have moved aggressively to merge and cut costs.

Even so, the investor-owned hospitals worry about proposed Congressional spending cuts.

In fact, concerns about investor-owned hospitals putting profits over care have long been raised.