Tsunami of economic turmoil to hit the healthcare in 2021-2022: COVID-19 pandemic is just an earthquake

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic caused the United States to hit record numbers of COVID-19 cases: peak unemployment of 14.7%, an increase in $4 trillion in national debt, and an estimated 3.4% GDP decline. The current socio-economic environment the pandemic created is just an earthquake that can create a tsunami that is bound to hit the healthcare system and can be felt around the globe. This tsunami is composed of a post-pandemic increase in healthcare facilities admission of indigent patients, decrease in medical reimbursement, and high operating costs to maintain healthcare workers, which can cause a synergistic effect that can lead to healthcare facilities experiencing significant negative total revenue. Time is of the essence, and it is imperative to make a collective effort from all healthcare professionals and legislatures to shift the nation’s attention to the issue at hand that can threaten the closure of many healthcare facilities post-pandemic.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• COVID
• Sars-Co-V-2
• health care debt
• national debt
• increase healthcare cost

Declaration of financial/other relationships

None of the authors have any conflict or financial interest to disclose

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Declaration of interest

SS is a speaker for Paratek and Mylan Lab. No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).