Robert Bork's evisceration of US antitrust law allowed a gouging company to dismantle the US government's contract for making copious inexpensive ventilators.

More information about those events (though it doesn't trace the connections to antitrust law and Medtronic).

But it does mention that the US government pushed to reduce the number of hospital beds because it expected that the business-based US medical system would seek excuses to keep all hospital beds full.

A National Health Service can maintain extra beds as a reserve, given political will to provide good medical care.