The health care system has limited resources. Presumably, they should be allocated to maximize benefit. What is happening, roughly, is that treating COVID-19 patients has been given priority as if that always provides more benefit, hence is a better use of resources.
The kind of COVID-19 patients that are admitted to hospitals are in serious condition. A large percentage of them are elderly and/or medically compromised and have a relatively high probability of dying. Typically, they end up in intensive care and require inordinate amounts of resources, including medical supplies, and medical staff time. In contrast, for example, a relatively young woman with breast cancer who is completing a chemotherapy regimen that has reduced the size of her tumor to the point where, if it removed now, she has a high probability of living out the rest of her life is defined as requiring non-essential surgery – and doesn’t get it.
Governments, federal, state, and local are allocating healthcare, by fiat, to people with a relatively low probability of recovering and who will likely live only a few more years if they do recover. This is at the expense of providing it to people who have a relatively high probability of recovery and who will likely live many more years if they do. This kind of allocation scheme makes no sense and has destroyed the health care system for the majority of patients who need it.
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