No hospital, no ER.

The first thing that came to my mind at the mention of the closing of hospitals was the fact that a large number of people rely on hospitals as their primary form of healthcare, as emergency rooms are required by law to treat anyone who comes in. The absence of emergency rooms could leave many people without proper medical care, and also has the effect of increasing the burden upon remaining hospitals, as they would be forced to serve larger numbers of people without increasing their number of beds/capacity for patients. This dynamic is disadvantageous for hospitals as well as patients; hospitals seldom provide the best care they can when they are over-crowded, and patients face longer waiting times and sub-par service when they are sharing an Emergency Room that is over capacity. There is, however, a chicken and egg question here: are hospitals closing because of a failing healthcare system, or is the failing healthcare system forcing hospitals to close? It may be a difficult question, but it seems unlikely that closing one hospital after another will benefit the general population in any significant way.