The severe, very-weird recession in health care… and what it means to our wallets

You’ve probably noticed: The U.S. economy is crashing.

Something you may not have noticed, that may sound really weird: Almost half of that economic devastation comes from just one sector.

And that sector? It’s health care.

If that sounds completely backwards, it is. Except in the world of how we pay for health care in this country.

Because even though we as a society need health care workers like never before, to fight COVID…

… we-as-individuals are avoiding doctors’ offices and hospitals for everything else, whenever we can.  Just like we’re avoiding going out to eat.

And this country runs health care kind of like the restaurant industry:  When people stop showing up for Sunday brunch, or for hip replacements, colonoscopies, etc. ,the enterprise runs short of cash real fast.

Even folks you’d think would be the most in-demand , ER docs fighting COVID,aren’t immune.

In this episode, we look at some of the extra weird details of this very-weird recession: how a couple pieces of it are working, and what they could mean. For our wallets.

We draw in this story on stuff we covered in a Season 3 episode called Can They Freaking DO That?!?  It’s still fun and relevant, and you can catch it right here.