Guardian - At his daily press briefing in Albany on Tuesday, Cuomo described a “bizarre situation” in which every state buys its own ventilators, pitting them against each other in bidding war.
“You have 50 states competing to buy the same item,” he said.
“We all wind up bidding up each other and competing against each other, where you now literally will have a company call you up and say, ‘Well, California just outbid you.’ It’s like being on eBay with 50 other states, bidding on a ventilator.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency was making matters worse, Cuomo added.
“How inefficient! And then Fema gets involved and Fema starts bidding. And now Fema is bidding on top of the 50. So Fema is driving up the price. What sense does this make?
“The federal government, Fema, should have been the purchasing agent: buy everything and then allocate by need to the states. Why would you create a situation where the 50 states are competing with each other and then the federal government and Fema comes in and competes with the rest of it?”
Without attacking Trump directly, the governor added: “Anyone could’ve told you a lot of these things … did you really have to learn that 50 states shouldn’t compete against 50 states, and then Fema shouldn’t come in late and compete with 50 states? It’s not like you had to go to the Harvard Kennedy school to learn this.”
3 comments:
In a way, it seems that 'good' economical business practices and outsourcing overseas has led to our current condition.
First of all, manufacturers, distributors, and individual hospitals (or other facilities) have found it to be better to only stock enough of an item to meet the demand for a relatively short period of time. (A large inventory of lots of item actually cost money.) Also, beginning back in the 1980s, hospitals shrank in the number of beds available, maybe due to regulations, maybe DRG requirements... and Staffing was kept only at a level for a 70% occupancy.
THEN... We get a president that starts insulting 'everybody-and-their-mother', treaties are cancelled, trade deals are good one minute and then considered stupid the next. So is it any wonder that China, who makes so much of our needed PPEs and masks, etc. decides to keep those necessary items for use in their own country and not send them to the U.S. when we need them?
Manufacturing here in the U.S. actually is important for National Security!
I wonder just how many other things are made in foreign countries, that we might need someday. For things like computers, phones, NASA, the Army...
This might be more than a 'wake-up' call for our Health Care industry.
Theoretically Speaking
Whadayou expect in a capitalist free market country?
Just another example of the inherent evil of capitalism.
Just another reason to take health care away from capitalism, as many other countries have done.
bc expects will continue under either Biden or the twerp.
I might suggest that capitalism itself isn't the problem, rather the lack of regulation by disinterested government leaders.
I'm not sure that a single payer system in a capitalist economy would not work.
Of course, I'm not a self-serving economist. Or a money grubbing politician. So my comments are merely hypothetical.
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