"How does the free market deal with mass casualties after the fact besides activating units from overstretched reserve units of the Armed Forces?"
If a WMD hits New York or D.C., folks will be evacuated to more rural areas that you so lovingly refer to in a previous post. There are already plans in place to do exactly that, in a worst-case scenario.
Do you really think more hospitals in an area likely to be hit by a WMD attack would make a difference when everybody leaves those areas?
Closing these hospitals will have little, if any, effect on a WMD response, should one be required.
IIRC, the name used in that reference was used by a First Sergeant O'Donnell of Combat Support Company, 1st Battalion, 504th Infantry, 82nd Airborne Division, at least when I heard it in 1981. I believe he was in the Army Special Forces in Vietnam.
The rural areas I "so lovingly" referred to could well have been Ellenville or Kerhonkson, NY. They are not likely targets.
Do you really think more hospitals in an area likely to be hit by a WMD attack would make a difference when everybody leaves those areas?
If the greater New York metropolitan area has to be evacuated, where are about 20 million folks supposed to get shelter?
Closing these hospitals will have little, if any, effect on a WMD response, should one be required.
It depends on the number of folks affected, the nature of the WMD attack and how persistent are the effects. If it only affects thousands, or a few tens of thousands, maybe that would be sufficient to prevent things from getting out of hand. IMHO, it would be foolish in this day and age not to have a surge capacity for mass casualties in at least the ten largest cities in the country.