Sandusky Register: State leaders are again wrong in health care

In our view, the move by state lawmakers to deprive local authorities of the power to appoint members of the local health council is a continuation of the abuse of power. It is also unnecessary, unnecessary and dangerous.

State MP Scott Wigam, R-Wooster, chairman of the state committee and local government House of Representatives, recently held a hearing to hear opposition testimony on House Bill 463, which consolidates powers of appointment only in county councils served by the public. health council.

Currently, all local governments in health districts have a contribution to who is appointed to the health council. Wiggam and other lawmakers who want to change that hope to wipe out health departments, and that, in our view, is simply unreasonable. We see no reason for this, and these legislators need to be stopped.

Wiggham and other Republicans who support the bill are reluctant to hear testimony. It’s just a matter of words to create the illusion that it’s an extraordinary effort to do justice. That’s not it. It is an outrageous seizure of power to consolidate power over health councils and continue the right-wing war for health care that Wiggam and others doubled during the pandemic.

Wiggam, a close ally of former House Speaker Larry Hausholder before Hausholder’s arrest in a $ 61 million bribery scheme, has long been an enemy of health measures. In June 2020, he and 18 other Republicans in the House of Representatives signed a letter stating that the pandemic had reached its peak. They called for the repeal of health orders.

In the months following this misinformed call, the number of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths from COVID-19 grew exponentially. Wiggam and his Republican counterparts were wrong then, and now they are wrong.

We see no reason to consolidate power under one local government. The system is not broken and does not need to be fixed, especially by people like Wigg who do not understand the need for health measures and do not respect it.

This is a clear abuse of power.