>That would obviously inconvenience some people, but the gist of the criticism is that the US duplicates medical capacity for the sake of convenience.
I work for a hospital chain that has done similar things. A lot of the failing hospitals in little towns across the US is because of this, and the consolidation that's happening is to remove similar inefficiencies. People that live in these little towns with failing hospitals see any move towards correcting these inefficiencies as evidence that our medical system is failing and use it to vote for right wing politicians who make empty promises.
I mean because commonly you shift the problem back to the user's insurance....
If you have 2 hospitals and one takes your insurance and the other doesn't you still get service. If you consolidate to one and they don't take your insurance you may have to drive hours to get medical service.
A huge failure of the system is how health insurance works.
I work for a hospital chain that has done similar things. A lot of the failing hospitals in little towns across the US is because of this, and the consolidation that's happening is to remove similar inefficiencies. People that live in these little towns with failing hospitals see any move towards correcting these inefficiencies as evidence that our medical system is failing and use it to vote for right wing politicians who make empty promises.