Good morning. Welcome to Axios today. It's Thursday, November 17th. I'm Nyla Boudou.

Here's what we're covering today. The current trajectory of the war in Ukraine,

plus a groundbreaking MeToo bill passes in Congress.

But first, hospitals struggle to house patients with deadly consequences.

That's today's one big thing.

Hospitals are keeping patients longer than they need to, as healthcare worker shortages

are making it hard to get some patients into longer-term care.

Now, healthcare facilities are looking to Congress for help paying for the patients they can't discharge.

Meanwhile, ERs have been overflowing in some parts of the country

and a lack of beds has left some to die in emergency waiting rooms.

Axios' healthcare reporter, Ariel Dreyer, has been covering this story. Hi, Ariel.

Hi. Ariel, why are hospitals not able to discharge patients?

What issues are they facing there?

It's what I would call a perfect storm, right?

We have staffing shortages in almost every level of our healthcare system right now,

including and especially in the long-term care system.

So skilled nursing facilities and long-term care facilities, family group homes,

those types of settings were really hit hard by COVID

and subsequently hit hard by staffing shortages.

And so when there's not enough staff in those facilities,

there's just not as much capacity and space for hospitals to discharge patients, too.

A letter was sent to President Biden, which was striking in that it talked about the literal life consequences of this.

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