COVID-19, tornadoes show government is how we take care of each other | Opinion

• Justin Kanew runs The Tennessee Holler, a progressive news site, and ran for Congress in 2018 as a Democrat.

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is a pandemic. Reported illnesses range from very mild to severe, including death. Agencies anticipate widespread transmission will occur in the U.S. in coming months and recommend social distancing among other measures to slow the spread.  Call your doctor and stay home if you are sick. Get more information at CDC.gov/coronavirus or contact the Tennessee Department of Health coronavirus information line at 877-857-2945 from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. CT daily.

In recent weeks Tennessee has been devastated by tornadoes and hit by a global pandemic. Tennessee Volunteers and loved ones are still sifting through the rubble of the tornado damage, picking up the pieces and coming together to rebuild and move forward, something our state is very good at. We simultaneously brace ourselves for the yet-to-be-fully-discovered impact of the coronavirus, which has already rocked the global economy.  

In both cases, we turn to the government for help. Tornado victims are able to apply for assistance from the federal government if their property was damaged. Where the virus is concerned, we’re counting on the nationwide dissemination of testing (the lack thereof has been unacceptable) and information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other government departments.   

Fear of medical bankruptcy looms

Our conservative friends and family members love to make “government,” especially the federal government from which we get 37% of our state budget, out to be the bad guy, but a pandemic like this shows us why the world that progressives want to create is a more humane one than we have. We want everyone to be covered by health insurance, to be able to stay home when they're sick without fear of getting fired, and to be able to get tested without fear of medical bankruptcy, which Tennessee has more of than any other state.   

We’ve already seen people who have gone in for testing for the virus hit with thousands of dollars in surprise bills, which only serves as a disincentive for others to go in and get checked.  

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That puts us all at risk, especially in a state that hasn’t expanded Medicaid, where 300,000 Tennesseans lack insurance unnecessarily and many rural communities have lost their hospitals.  

Virus testing and cures must be made available to all at no cost, but more importantly, sick people in general should be able to get treatment when their illness isn’t associated with a pandemic. The reasons to treat this particular disease differently are political, not moral. People shouldn’t be going broke because they got sick or getting sued by hospitals because they can’t pay their bills. Our system is broken, and a change to something like Medicare for All, which studies show would actually be cheaper and save lives, is desperately needed.  

Paid sick leave is vital and overdue

Recently the Surgeon General took to Twitter to ask employers to make paid sick leave available to employees rather than force them to come to work, something other countries mandate. The bill the U.S. House of Representatives just passed 363-40 (opposed by Mark Green, Tim Burchett, Scott DesJarlais and John Rose) is a good start, but it exempts companies with more than 500 employees, which doesn’t make much sense. American workers should know they can take care of themselves without fear of losing their jobs. Paid sick leave should be a law, not a Twitter request. This is something we should have done a long time ago.   

The bottom line is that it shouldn’t take a global pandemic to remind us we need to treat each other like human beings. Government isn’t always the answer, but it isn’t the boogeyman either. It’s how we take care of each other.   

Justin Kanew runs The Tennessee Holler, a progressive news site, and ran for Congress in 2018 as a Democrat.