What is really the problem is the hospital is not built or staffed to handle all of the unexpected snowbirds or visitors that are here. Every winter this happens. It happens anywhere the population of older people increase dramatically. You notice the dinning establishements are jammed packed. I live here full time and after all the snowbirds go home life becomes normal. Normal mind you as the wait times at hospitals and restaurants are greatly reduced. I also lived in the Phoenix Metro area for 30 years and worked 10 of them as a paramedic. Lots of good quality hospitals. But the problems were the same, extremely long wait times and patients in the hallways. An example was the town of Apache Junction. Normal population was about 25,000. With all the snowbirds showing up there the population increased to around 60,000 every winter. That increase was all older people with more medical issues. We increased the number of medic units but still ran calls back to back for 24 hrs. This was from December to April every year. That was just one small town in the Phx metro area. It was like that in all the towns and cities there. Your small towns or large cities up north don't have to deal with this kind of problem with enough beds or staff or even square footage. The hospitals here can't run in the summer time with too much staff and too much equipment and supplies and huge empty buildings. You think your medical bills are high now? If this was to happen you might as well forget about health care here period.
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