Hospitals, which have switched to a just-in-time inventory system that allows them to save money by keeping less equipment in reserve,
So, hospitals which have followed the dominant reasoning for economic maximization are now ill positioned to deal with this disaster.
As I understand, it used to be, a lot of services and business staffed and supplied for periods of peak demand. But then, you’re losing all those dollars you could shave during slacker times.
Perhaps it’s time to rethink whether or not a particular kind of business’s model of ‘efficiency’ really is applicable to all sectors of nations ‘economy.’
I wonder if there are some things for which that a country should not rely on just-in-time inventory management. Novels, acne medication, and hockey equipment, sure. N95 masks and testing swabs need redundancy.
I’ll add that, if the government is going to encourage and support a particular kind of business organization for everyone, then it must take onto itself the role of provider of last resort or sow disaster.
So, yes, in a case like this, they should be a fucking “shipping clerk.” And one with a well stocked warehouse, at that.
The whole executive branch of federal government should be like infrastrucure, functionary beaurocrats, doing their boring jobs well. I remember the FT’s great Gillian Tett realizing she didn’t know who the president/prime minister of Switzerland was. So she asked a Swiss executive and he wasn’t sure either. How great is that?
Meanwhile, Party of Treason is outraged that they can’t be handed a half trillion dollar blank check. It’s like some Dems in the senate don’t trust them. Time to whip out the flag and start shouting about patriotism.
I’m not sure anyone who’s dealt with Blue Cross/Blue Shield would be using the words ‘efficiency’ and ‘healthcare’ in the same sentence.
Overall, we pay twice as much as any other country for healthcare for far fewer percentage insured with worse outcomes. So much for market-based healthcare.
C’mon, so maybe they took all the bail money last time and blew it on cheap coke, maxed out the credit cards, ran the car into a ditch, and then called from jail to be bailed out. It’s not like that’s going to happen again!
I’ve had no insurance nightmares and have certainly got my money’s worth out of the coverage. But, then, I’m carried on my union’s plan, so my individual costs are spread through the membership group (as in, ‘socialized’) and haven’t impacted my payments.
That said, following Krugman, I’d suppose that a lot of the cost of American health insurance comes from paying a bureaucracy which exists for no other purpose than to deny people coverage.
With all the expired equipment in the national stockpile it is pretty clear that little attention has been paid to this situation. Epidemics have largely affected countries on the other side of the planet. Hopefully when we get a competent administration of not-Republicans there will be a lot of work done to make sure our stockpiles for emergencies are up to snuff. It is really tragic irony that the first pandemic in a century arrived when we have the worst POTUS & administration in our history.
Every reporter at the WH daily Covid-19 briefing needs to ask the following question til it gets answered.
How much worse do things need to get before the US government commits to all necessary actions required to end this?
“Nobody ever envisioned a disaster like Coronavirus” said Trump, maybe not using these exact words. The government was advised repeatedly that it was exposed to risks because it was unprepared to respond quickly to a virus pandemic. Uri Friedman of the Atlantic provides a succinct record of the warnings Trump received.
