Commentary: American Health Care Has Been Put On Edge

If I am feeling ill or have been injured I go to a doctor. I seek either immediate treatment or options. My default position weighs heavily in the favor of the doctor’s advice.

When I was quite young my parents were at the head of the line in making sure I was protected from polio. More recently (much more) my wife and I got vaccinated to protect ourselves from Shingles.

In short, my family looking back and forward has assumed that the health care community was deeply knowledgeable about what we should do and when we should do it. Our doctors could have decided to take a different career path — fortunately for them, they didn’t go into public health.

It is interesting, bordering on the tragic, that public health care has now been politicized. And the severe political cleavages have long-term consequences. The very foundations of health care have been shaken. The data is clear; the truth is discoverable, health care is in trouble.

Medical professionals and particularly nurses are leaving the profession. Hospitals have had to turn to traveling nurses and there are not enough of them to go around. Rural health care has been severely damaged.

In an earlier column, I noted that COVID-19 and its variants could be likened to a really good curve ball. For the uninitiated, a good curve ball can make even the best hitters look lame.

Yep, COVID-19 has on occasion made Dr. Fauci look lame, but I would ask his critics for the names of public health leaders that are good curve ball hitters. Fauci has been medical advisor to every President since Ronald Reagan and received the Presidential Medal of Honor from George W. Bush.

In recent months we have seen public health policy default to the Courts. As President Biden strived to mandate vaccinations, a handful of state attorneys general sued. Biden was depending on laws enacted at a different time to deal with a different circumstance and the Supreme Court said he could not use Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OHSA) regulations as broadly as he wanted.

So, we default to executive orders and the courts because once again Congress is a no-show. Going back two years they should have urgently conducted hearings and faced up to their responsibility to define the conditions that would justify a national response. Lives were on the line. The institutions of health care were on the line. Education of school children was on the line. The health of our democracy was on the line.

When I think of Congress and COVID, Sen. Rand Paul comes to mind. He declared war on Dr. Fauci over the the origin of the virus. Paul used every trick in his book to demean our nation’s infectious disease leader and in the course of doing so became a handmaiden of the virus spread. Guidelines from the government require trust; no trust, limited compliance.

Paul is a libertarian. Sen. Bernie Sanders is a socialist. In between there are 98 other Senators; where were they? Libertarians are never going to take the lead when collective action is needed. Most often they believe our individual liberties should trump collective initiatives.

So let’s see. We have a highly infectious and potentially lethal disease that is spread worldwide by the marvels of global transportation systems and our public health response relies on old laws and court interpretations. How do we prepare for the next global outbreak?

Congress should do its job. Individual Members should be called to accountability. There is nothing wrong with a Left/Right divide as solutions are sought. There are persons on the Left that default to overreach while on the Right, under reach. And differing opinions should be sought from those with academic and experiential chops. But what is not acceptable is what the Congress has left to others. People in Congress have been elected to do the people’s business. How many think they are doing it?

Al Sikes is the former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and former administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. He lives in Easton.