hospitals

Expiration of premium subsidies can cause adverse selection—younger and healthier people may forgo more expensive coverage—leading insurers to raise premiums for the remaining, older or sicker enrollees and increasing uncompensated care costs for hospitals and government.

Hurricane storm surge can reach multiple meters in height and be life-threatening to coastal areas and ground-floor facilities, potentially requiring relocation of vulnerable patients and assets to higher floors.

Emergency management protocols commonly prioritize critical institutions such as hospitals, children's homes, and correctional facilities for emergency water deliveries when municipal water supplies are disrupted by severe weather.

Immigration enforcement operations can create a climate of fear that disrupts daily life and regional economies, including decreased workplace attendance, temporary or permanent business closures, and increased strain on schools, hospitals, and places of worship.

A 2025 KFF analysis identified main drivers of recent ACA premium increases as increased demand for costly treatments including GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, higher prices from hospitals and other providers, and insurer assumptions that enrollment could decline if premium tax credits expire.

The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) can approve state plan details that tie higher hospital reimbursement levels to hospitals' implementation of medical-debt relief initiatives.

State Medicaid programs can use hospital assessments to draw federal Medicaid matching funds in order to increase reimbursement levels for participating hospitals.

Policy implementations can require participating hospitals to remove medical debt from patients' credit reports retroactively to a specified prior date (for example, removing debt back to early 2014 for Medicaid enrollees).

Air defense systems are designed to detect and intercept aerial attacks and can protect civilian targets such as cities, energy infrastructure, and hospitals from bombardment.

Under New York's Safe Haven Law, parents may legally surrender a newborn to hospitals, police precincts, or fire stations without facing criminal charges provided the child is left in the care of responsible personnel.

Hurricanes can damage critical infrastructure such as power systems and hospitals, leading to widespread outages, medical evacuations, and disruptions to fuel and food supplies.

Hospitals, including midsize and smaller facilities, commonly recruit internationally to address clinical staffing shortages.