A poor diagnosis for U.S. health policy

The coronavirus exposes systemic problems in health care and economic policies that need resolution.

Whether the United States can fend off serious short-term health damage from the threat of the COVID-19 virus remains to be seen. But the virus already has shown that long-term systemic problems with U.S. health care and economic policies need resolution.

More than 32 million American workers do not have any paid sick leave, for example.

That means that as the government advises people to stay home if they feel ill, millions of workers will tough it out and go to work because they can’t afford to do otherwise.

That workforce is heavily concentrated in service businesses, including restaurants and hotels, in which workers directly interact with customers.

And the potential for a pandemic has arisen as the Supreme Court prepares to consider whether to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare. That program vastly has increased the number of people with health insurance, and the number of people who can access preventive care, since its passage in 2010. If the court strikes down the law, millions more Americans will be without coverage.

Congress also has failed to act against soaring drug prices. So, even if the pharmaceutical industry manages to fulfill President Donald Trump’s fanciful notion that a COVID-19 cure is at hand, untold numbers of Americans won’t be able to afford a vaccine or treatments.

The best defense against COVID-19 is not to catch it, which requires attention to hygiene and rapid identification, treatment and quarantine of people who are infected.

For the long term, the virus should instruct Congress that U.S. policy is dangerous.

The right to know

Elected officials are still employees.

A mayor may not be answerable to a council member.

The governor might not have to get the attorney general to approve his vacation.

The president doesn’t have to get Congress to approve a sick day.

But all of them were elected to do a job, and they have a boss. A lot of them, actually. The superior they answer to is the public.

That is why the state Office of Open Records told Westmoreland County officials that, yes, they did have to turn over electronic swipe card records for Register of Wills Sherry Magretti Hamilton.

It does not matter that the request for those records was made by Matthew Pecarchik, whose wife, Katie, is a Register of Wills employee and a former candidate for the office.

Pennsylvania’s Right-toKnow Law doesn’t make a provision for why someone wants to have access to public information. It just states that public information should be made available to the public when they ask for it.

It doesn’t say who can have it and who can’t. It doesn’t draw lines around some people and cross out others. The who doesn’t matter. Just the what.

Westmoreland County officials shouldn’t fight that. But they are. On Wednesday, they asked a county judge to overturn the state agency’s decision. It’s a bad move. The county should support the idea of accountability in its employees, whether elected or hired. It should stand behind the idea that the people are paying a salary and deserve the work that goes with it.

And Magretti Hamilton absolutely deserves to have her reputation free from tarnish. Not giving the information requested doesn’t do that. It makes the questions linger rather than providing answers.

Elected officials are employees. They have a responsibility to their employers, and the law gives those employers — the people — a right to know.