Christus Health holds up its 50-50 partnership with Baptist St. Anthony's Health System in Amarillo as an example of how things could be in Santa Fe.

BSA was created through the merger in the late 1990s of St. Anthony's, a Catholic hospital, and High Plains Baptist Hospital. By most all accounts, consumers are happy with the quality of health care.

Consultant Dave Clark, a former executive at both hospitals, called the merger "wildly successful." Three clinical specialty services ranked among the top 50 in the U.S. in a 2005 U.S. News & World Report survey, he pointed out, and BSA is Christus' top revenue producer. "It's beautiful. You drive by and go, 'Oh, my God.' The public thinks this is incredible," he said.

But doctors, he added, "will tell you they hate it and the philosophy is all about making money."

Christus' chief executive, John Hicks, earns nearly $2.5 million in salary and benefits, according to the nonprofit's 2005 tax return.

BSA has also worked aggressively to gain control of the managed care market in Amarillo. By most estimates, it has a 70 percent or higher share, which "has been a sore point for people in Amarillo," according to Brandon Durbin, a CPA who is an expert witness on health-care accounting practices.

And there are stories that it dumps the uninsured on the local for-profit hospital, Northwest Texas Health System, which is owned by Universal Health Services.

The governing board at BSA is split between the Baptists and the Catholics, although the word is the Catholics now have the upper hand.

Neither BSA nor Northwest performs medically necessary abortions. The local bishop has served on the board of an ultraconservative organization called Priests for Life, whose national director built a a community in Amarillo called Missionaries of the Gospel of Life to train priests devoted to ministering to "the defense of the unborn."

"Nobody wants to put up with the protesters," according to Claudia Stravato, chief executive of Planned Parenthood of Amarillo and the Texas Panhandle. "Everybody here goes to Albuquerque," she said, where Planned Parenthood and local providers offer terminations.

Although she believes emergency contraception "should be given in the ER" to sexual assault victims, state law in Texas doesn't require it, and BSA does not offer it, Stravato said. But the sexual assault nurse does refer women to Planned Parenthood.

Earlier this year, the board of BSA attempted to cancel its provider contract with Planned Parenthood, saying in a document that its "ethics and morals about pregnancy were not consistent with BSA's."

"I had to play politics," Stravato said. After she "put lots of pressure" on the hospital board, the decision was rescinded. She said she didn't think the entire board had signed off on the change.

Stravato had some advice for communities where Catholic health systems are buying a share of the local health care industry: "Everything from birth control to emergency contraception to tubal ligation and vasectomy are at issue or are in jeopardy."