How government regulations create hospital bed shortages

FEE's Hannah Cox writes, "Hospital beds are again filling up across the country as America copes with another variant of the COVID-19 virus. Three quarters of intensive care unit (ICU) beds are occupied at the moment, and 28 percent of those are by COVID patients.

Furthermore, almost half of all states report their hospitals’ ICU beds have exceeded 75 percent capacity…

Almost half of all states report their hospitals’ ICU beds have exceeded 75% capacity.

And the reason for that traces right back to government policies that make healthcare more expensive and harder to access.@HannahDCox explains: https://t.co/txKOkg3WhN — FEE (@feeonline) August 31, 2021

But, when outlets merely report that hospitals are at or approaching capacity, it neglects a key part of the equation. 75 percent of beds being full sounds scary, but people need to ask: 75 percent of what number of beds in the first place? 75 percent of 200 beds in a given region is a lot of patients; 75 percent of four beds is a different story.

In reality, it doesn’t take much for most hospitals to reach “capacity,” because their supply of beds is already severely restricted even before an emergency takes place.

Read the entire column here.