A poor diagnosis for U.S. health policy

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.

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