The coronavirus pandemic has again brought into sharp focus the vulnerabilities at hospitals across the nation: constrained surge capacity, shortfalls in critical supplies and equipment, shortages in trained medical personnel.
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According to the Washington Post…
Most hospitals — nonprofit, public and for-profit — operate on thin financial margins and have little to no budget for contingency preparations.
Nearly all of the roughly 400 hospital administrators surveyed said they had too many obligations to prepare for emerging infectious diseases in the absence of a current threat.
While many health-care officials say they are better prepared for major emergencies now than before the 2001 terrorist attacks, those efforts have been undermined by steady funding cuts
Let’s get specific and risk touching a 3rd-rail….
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Also according to the Washington Post…
Hospitals may receive funding from other federal agencies, but for nearly two decades the Hospital Preparedness grant program has been the only federal source of funds dedicated to preparing the nation’s health-care network for major emergencies.
Across the country, federal grants awarded through the (Federal) hospital preparedness program plunged 40 percent between 2010 and 2014, under President Barack Obama.
For example, from 2010 to 2018, federal funding to help New Jersey hospitals prepare for health emergencies fell from $11 million to $5.5 million, leading to smaller stockpiles of emergency supplies and less training to prepare for a surge of patients.
Gee, what was magical about 2010?
Oh yeah, ObamaCare was introduced.
Hmmm.
Wonder why there’s hasn’t been much chatter on this aspect of the current crisis…
The Homa Files 
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