Opinion: The coronavirus pandemic could transform our health care system — for the better
The Covid-19 pandemic has rapidly disrupted our everyday life. Cities and states are on lockdown in a desperate effort to flatten the curve. Worst-case scenario projections are dire, with the potential for millions of deaths in the absence of immediate, decisive, and coordinated action. The virus threatens to overwhelm our health care system while frontline medical professionals lack the equipment needed to protect themselves from infection.
It’s a bleak scenario. And it won’t get better any time soon. Yet we have high hopes for how the U.S. health care system will emerge from this crisis. Why? In the past two weeks, the nation has adopted new policies to protect the health of vulnerable populations – policies that public health professionals and advocates have been pursuing for decades.
