I agree with your reason in post 1. The article also states that some people couldn’t get/put off treatments for months during the beginning of COVID. The article also speaks of hospital overcrowding even before COVID because there aren’t enough hospital beds. Does a lack of hospital beds because hospitals don’t want open beds because they want to maximize profits create a situation in which the media can stoke COVID hysteria: “WE’RE RUNNING OUT OF BEDS!”
The lack of hospital beds is a purposeful decision via the government Healthcare Finance Comittee back in the 80s that with its infinite wisdom of newly minted but ignorant mbas decided that each hospital bed needed to be a profit center.
Formerly there were abundant hospital beds and most hospitals ran at 70 to 80 percent capacity. The overage was part of the national defense strategy. Like the interstate highways that could turn into air strips. The empty beds were not seen as a problem. However with micromanaging and false goals the hospital capacities were forced to be cut.
Marching towards 3rd world status
Understand something: hospitals cannot “open beds” without adequate staffing. It’s against a number of federal laws for any hospital to take on more patients than they have staff. I worked for a hospital system years ago and was involved in the implementation of their bed management system. They have very complex formulas to determine how many beds they can make available for patients. If they have a staffing shortage, they have to pare back their available beds. It’s that simple.
This recent spate of “hospitals at capacity” isn’t due to hospitals being full but a lack of staffing. You could go to your local “full” hospital, and I guarantee you’ll find open rooms/beds in that facility for all the reasons I just explained.