How US For Profit Healthcare Could Make Coronavirus Go Viral
The nation's not for profit hospitals will have no qualms about testing for coronavirus--especially the ones that serve the uninsured. What is the worst that can happen?If the uninsured sick are too afraid to go to a charity hospital for fear of coronavirus then the charity hospital actually saves money. If the hospital is quarantined and all elective surgery has be postponed the charity hospital saves money.
However, no for profit hospital will want to be the first kid on the block to announce (proudly) "Yes! We have a coronovirus patient in our ICU!"
Just look at what happened to Presbyterian in Dallas when they sent home someone with Ebola and then later took care of the same patient with Ebola. Elective surgeries cancelled. Hospital a graveyard. Loss of revenue. And that was Ebola, a disease which requires actual contact with infectious bodily fluids. Thanks to the Japanese public health official who contracted coronovirus after merely touring one of the plague ships, we now know that all you have to do is look at someone with coronvirus to get it. A simple face mask does not provide enough protection.
So, I expect that we will see a delay in testing that will hamper public health response. It is likely that there are already patients in our nation's or profit hospitals who have coronavirus but who are not being tested. I expect people who ask to be tested will be told "That is unnecessary." Meaning that our for profit health care system is going to be a big barrier to the public health effort to contain this disease.
A single payer/non profit system--like the one in Italy---would not hesitate to test. They have nothing to lose and a lot of useful epidemiological information to gain.
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