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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 28, 2025

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The formula used by the NHS explicitly has a rural weighting so as to offset the population densities. Not entirely of course but somewhat.

You don't think a your caveats are doing a lot of work here? How big is the weighting, and do they compare to vaccinating the young and healthy vs. the old and the infirm?

In the US about 35% of hospitals are in rural areas but about 83% of people live in cities.

That's not a massive disproportion, and it says nothing about actual resource use. I've been to rural hospitals (in Europe) they're not comparable to city hospitals.

"Hey you're too expensive to treat, so just fend for yourselves" is a bit of a non starter, but the effect is the same.

You don't think it's possible to patch someone up locally, and send them to a bigger hospital if they need more complex care? Or are you saying this is not being done?