Monday, March 30, 2020

Expected medical costs in my hometown

I estimate them.
I think our neighborhood size is 150,000 and each neighborhood will need five hundred beds for six weeks, but the neighborhoods will be split in phases as the virus spread. Total beds needed should remain at five hundred, and existing beds handle inter phase bulge.  My total need is five hundred beds extra over ten weeks to accommodate 60 dead..  I see the total costs at a billion. The population here is a half million. We are an  ag town with a major transport artery running through.

My numbers will be well within ball park, I know a whole lot about people, laces and things and how they congregate around here. Phase two will be the worst, but it hits in central Fresno, about a third of us. But the burbs have sharp boundaries, the inter phase delay is another three weeks.

Total medical costs are dropping everywhere because much fewer people are dying during the lock down. Fewer accidents, fewer heart attacks, less flu. We suffer surge pricing on certain medical specialties, like dealing with an unsolved corona virus.

Otherwise, I fully expected quite a few shut downs in California, mostly union strikes and  chaotic battles over commercial property taxes. Many town already on the brink, like LA, having to pay teachers with unsourced money, dealing with the homeless, the two tiered union contracts, a failed state legislature, PGE being mis-managed,...  Stall speed in California is about 1.5%, we will sudden stop before the typical region of the USA.

We suffer a deadly, unkwon corona virus for some time, but otherwise we are having the regularly scheduled recession, it is bailout time. It is generation bailout time, presidential bailout time, Senate/House bailout time; all our spectrum wants to get a sample during this period. We been through this, a been there done that, and it is costly.

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