THE RED TAPE PANDEMIC
So President Donald Trump waived those rules, too. Now tests are finally being made. But that delay killed people. It’s still killing people. Other needlessly repressive rules prevented doctors and hospitals from trying more efficient ways to treat patients. It’s good that governments finally removed some rules. But the time that took killed people. For example, telemedicine allows doctors and patients to communicate through the internet. When sick people consult doctors from home, they don’t pass on the virus in crowded waiting rooms. But lawyers and bureaucrats claimed such communications wouldn’t be “secure,” and would violate patients’ privacy. Only last week did officials announce they would allow doctors to “serve patients through everyday communications technologies.” Americans shouldn’t have to ask permission to use “everyday” technologies. Now doctors fear that as more people get sick, hospitals won’t have enough beds for the critically ill.
But the bed shortage is another consequence of bad law. Critical access hospitals in rural areas are not allowed to have more than 25 beds. Trump has now announced that he’s waiving those rules. In some states, there’s a shortage of doctors or nurses. That, too, is often a product of bad law – state licensing laws that make it illegal for professionals licensed in one state to work in another. Trump said he would waive “license requirements so that the doctors from other states can provide services to states with the greatest need.” Then it turned out that he could only allow that for Medicare – he didn’t have the power to override stupid state licensing rules. Fortunately, many states finally waived harmful licensing laws on their own. It’s good that governments finally removed some rules. But the time that took killed people. Once coronavirus passes, America should leave those regulations waived. And we should repeal many others. © Creators
John Stossel is author of Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media .
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April 2020
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