An epidemic of this, in the US, is a quick way to single payer healthcare.
Pronto.
Will bankrupt insurance companies.
Just making rounds today discussing this with the team(s) involved.
Long before the insurance companies are bankrupt (and, pro tip to GOP: they can’t survive in present form anyway) the first crisis will be: How many patients who do not need hospitalization will be isolated in hospitals for maximum containment before we go to isolation tents in warm weather locations?
Most hospitals don’t have seven days cash on hand. Right now, they are thinking of this as a minor annoyance, like getting a few more Medicaid patients.
Tell a hospital administrator that joint replacements and cardiac caths are going to be delayed, and watch shit get real.
The easiest target administratively to nationalize are the hospitals. The hardest nut to crack will be the “payers”, because they have spent the last twenty years taking control of the political process.
We are in for one hell of a ride.
Nope. This will destroy health care. Completely. Doctors, nurses, hospitals all gone. It’s why they are building dozens of hospitals in China with no doctors and no registered nurses. Just feeder and bucket cleaners. I know a few people I would recommend for that job here in the states.