31 ms·

> And, since the Federal government never stepped up to fund anything I'm not sure where this idea came from, but I really wish people would start arguing abou

> And, since the Federal government never stepped up to fund anything I'm not sure where this idea came from, but I really wish people would start arguing about what Congress actually did rather than making it up, because Congress did step up to fund medical care. The CARES act appropriated $130B for health care providers, including hospitals. The followup appropriations bill allocates $69B for vaccines, testing, health care providers, and mental health. One might argue that that's not enough money, but at least make the argument that they should have spent more rather than falsely claiming they spent nothing. Congress' direct payments to the healthcare providers in these two bills totaled $199B. Broken down by department, only two agencies are allocated more than $199B next year, the DOD ($695B) and the VA ($243B). And that's just looking at direct payments to medical providers, I didn't even mention the remaining $2.1T from the CARES act.

bsder 6y ago
I understand, but that's a one time payment (please do correct me if I'm wrong). Training these people requires multi-year funding and commitment to their hiring as well.
- ashtonkem 6y ago
  So far it's a two time payment, plus however you consider the forgivable loans. Most commenters on the issue expect that there'll need to be more bills next year. There is a lot to blame the federal government for in this pandemic, but the lack of nurses just isn't one. The federal government has very little leverage to increase the supply available, since the vast majority of nurses are employed by the private sector or state systems. Congress could provide more money to underwrite training and nurse salaries, but they'd just be setting up for mass layoffs once the demand for that form of labor returns to historical norms. And there is very little chance that these new nurses would be trained in time to make a difference. Maybe the federal government could undo the residency program that constrains the supply of doctors, but at best they could flush out all the doctors waiting for residency to complete right now. That would provide a small boost, but at most they could add 3 extra years worth of new doctors at once. Nothing the federal government could do would drastically increase the supply of doctors other than relaxing immigration requirements for foreign trained doctors, but that still takes time and is uncertain. If there's any aspect of this pandemic that I'd lay right at the feet of the federal government, it would be the lack of PPE. Both Congress and the executive branch have all of the tools at hand to goose the production of PPE domestically should they have decided to do so, and yet our medical personnel continue to reuse N95 masks nine months into this pandemic. An extra supply of N95 masks would have also reduced the attrition of medical personnel, as actual sickness and perceived risk has been a big drag on the supply of properly trained personnel to fight this pandemic.

bsder 6y ago

I understand, but that's a one time payment (please do correct me if I'm wrong). Training these people requires multi-year funding and commitment to their hiring as well.

ashtonkem 6y ago
So far it's a two time payment, plus however you consider the forgivable loans. Most commenters on the issue expect that there'll need to be more bills next year. There is a lot to blame the federal government for in this pandemic, but the lack of nurses just isn't one. The federal government has very little leverage to increase the supply available, since the vast majority of nurses are employed by the private sector or state systems. Congress could provide more money to underwrite training and nurse salaries, but they'd just be setting up for mass layoffs once the demand for that form of labor returns to historical norms. And there is very little chance that these new nurses would be trained in time to make a difference. Maybe the federal government could undo the residency program that constrains the supply of doctors, but at best they could flush out all the doctors waiting for residency to complete right now. That would provide a small boost, but at most they could add 3 extra years worth of new doctors at once. Nothing the federal government could do would drastically increase the supply of doctors other than relaxing immigration requirements for foreign trained doctors, but that still takes time and is uncertain. If there's any aspect of this pandemic that I'd lay right at the feet of the federal government, it would be the lack of PPE. Both Congress and the executive branch have all of the tools at hand to goose the production of PPE domestically should they have decided to do so, and yet our medical personnel continue to reuse N95 masks nine months into this pandemic. An extra supply of N95 masks would have also reduced the attrition of medical personnel, as actual sickness and perceived risk has been a big drag on the supply of properly trained personnel to fight this pandemic.