The coronavirus pandemic and healthcare
As the coronavirus pandemic tore through the US, Joe Biden’s most important promise to the American people was a policy platform taken for granted prior the Trump presidency: believe science.
America was already falling behind other developed nations on a panoply of key health metrics when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and the worst of the pandemic is likely to bear down just as the Biden-Harris administration takes office.
After Donald Trump chose to downplay the threat of the virus and spread conspiracy theories, the US led the world in Covid infections and deaths.
Currently, more than 100,000 people per day are being diagnosed with the coronavirus. Experts predict as many as 200,000 Americans per day could receive Covid-19 diagnoses by Thanksgiving. More than 237,000 Americans have already been killed by Covid-19.
Some analyses suggest more than 90,000 Americans have died unnecessarily – and these figures probably underrepresent the problem.
Biden has pledged, “disciplined, trustworthy leadership grounded in science”, including another stimulus package, robust and free testing and treatment, investment in pandemic planning, and more support for underfunded public health authorities. A coronavirus taskforce is already being formed.
At the same time, Biden will have to wrestle with the fallout from the Trump administration, most notably, a supreme court case that could overturn the signature achievement of the Obama-Biden administration, the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.
Should the ACA be overturned, 20 million Americans could lose insurance during a pandemic, joining the ranks of 12 million who lost employer-sponsored coverage amid pandemic-induced layoffs, and the 27 million who lacked insurance at the beginning of the pandemic. This would make the uninsured crisis worse than that which drove the law’s passage.
It could also have unintended consequences. Biden will need to reckon with an insurgent left animated by a desire for single-payer healthcare called Medicare for All. This group is likely to be unsatisfied by incremental reform.
Restoring trust in science will not be simple after four years of lies, half-truths, misdirections and conspiracy theories. Jessica Glenza
The economy
When Biden enters the White House on 20 January many epidemiologists are hoping that the US will be pulling through the worst phase of the coronavirus pandemic. Where the economy is heading is less certain.
Covid-19 and the global economy are now so intertwined that there seems no certain hope of economic recovery until the virus is under control.
The pandemic triggered a wave of shutdowns and record levels of unemployment and temporary layoffs. Some 20 million people lost their jobs in April as the unemployment rate hit 14.7%, the highest on record. Unemployment fell sharply to 6.9% in October but weekly claims for unemployment insurance remain historically high and the number of longterm unemployed is rising. The economic impact on the poor, women, people of color and the young has been dire.
Biden has pledged to use his presidential powers to force businesses to take the pandemic head on and increase testing and tracing, as well as manufacturing more personal protection equipment and ventilators.
He has said he would also issue new stimulus cheques to hard-hit Americans and increase payments to the unemployed that were cut by the Trump administration. Some of the cash would come from rolling back Trump’s biggest achievement – his $1.5tn tax cuts.
Expect Republicans to try to block or curtail new spending bills. Having run up a record $3.1tn budget deficit – the gap between what the US spends and what it earns through tax receipts and other revenue – Republicans are talking about the need to balance the books. The path for Biden’s recovery plan will be long and hard fought. Dominic Rushe
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
