Discussion week 7

Instructions Reply # 2

Respond to your colleague by either supporting or respectfully challenging their explanation on whether there is an evidence base to support the proposed health policy they described.

** At least 3 References **

**DEADLINE FRIDAY 01/15/2021 BEFORE 8:00 PM EST**

Claire Garcia 

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The U.S. healthcare system continues to evolve and, therefore, will continue to benefit from the improvements made to its performance, effectiveness, and efficiency through evidence-based policymaking (Milstead & Short, 2019). Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD) improves lives by designing, testing, and enabling better policy in developing countries (Harvard Kennedy School, 2020).  EPoD remains committed to promoting evidenced-based policies and teaching practices worldwide (Harvard Kennedy School, 2020).

The outbreak of Covid-19 has caused significant health and economic impacts in the United States.  The coronavirus can damage the lungs, heart, and brain, which increases the risk of long-term health problems.  The climbing mortality and morbidity rates of COVID-19 severely affected the healthcare industry, including employees and business owners.  Many could not work because they contracted the disease, some were laid off due to unsustainable overheads by businesses, and businesses closed down due to unrecoverable expenses.

The level of health and economic support policies put in place by governments played an important role in how certain countries and industrial sectors fared (Cantore et al., 2020).  The U.S. government enacted a bill, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) H.R. 6201, on March 18, 2020, to provide paid sick leave, tax credits, and free COVID-19 testing; expanding food assistance and unemployment benefits; and increasing Medicaid funding (Congress.gov, 2020).  This bill is created to respond to the coronavirus outbreak. It aimed to respond to the health and financial burden of the vulnerable United States people.

The virus's immediate and ongoing consequences have pushed the government to take quick actions and passed the bill in a few days.  The FFCRA explicitly protects working families from facing the terrible choice between staying home to avoid spreading the virus and losing the money they need to survive (congress.gov, 2020).  The bill has many sections mentioned mostly to support and provide benefits to employees, employers, children, families, and health workers.

In this discussion, I will focus on the paid leave for up to three months for those who have to stay home because of the virus and unemployment benefits for those who lose their job or are furloughed during the crisis (Congress.gov, 2020).  The law extends emergency paid sick leave to workers diagnosed with or in quarantine for Covid-19—the disease caused by the novel Coronavirus. 

The bill would provide employees with two weeks of paid sick time for two weeks or an emergency family and medical leave up to 12 weeks if the employee is unable to work or telework because they must care for a child under 18 years of age whose school or care provider is closed or unavailable with reasons related to Coronavirus emergency.  It applies to employers with more than 50 and less than 500 employees.  But due to the shortage of health care providers and emergency response teams during the pandemic, they allow employers of these workers to exclude such employees from the application of the provisions (Saperstein et al., 2020).  The law is also unlikely to help workers whose companies are too small or too big (Saperstein et al., 2020).

 According to the latest estimates from the Census Bureau, 98 percent of workers in the general merchandise industry work for a too-large business to be eligible for paid sick leave under the new law (Fowers & Tan. 2020).  Fowers and Tan (2020) stated that only twelve percent of workers in essential industries work for companies that will be guaranteed coverage by the bill.  There are still ample workers who have not able to avail themselves of paid sick leave. These workers are the essential workers such as grocery stores, pharmacies, gas stations, and those excluded like the health care providers and the emergency response team. 

People around the nation are facing significant challenges for almost a year now.  And the numbers confirmed cases of Covid-19 tell how the coronavirus changed Americans' lives. I believe this bill can stimulate economic improvement and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the law had recently expired on December 31, 2020, and the number of cases infected with COVID-19 is still surging.  The new $900 billion coronavirus pandemic relief package signed by President Trump on December 27, 2020, did not extend the mandatory paid leave provisions of the FFCRA (Frenzinger, 2021). However, the law does extend payroll credits to employers that voluntarily grant paid FFCRA leave to their employees through March 31, 2021 (Frenzinger, 2021).  I hope the U.S. government will extend a better version of the mandatory paid leave provisions or proposed new bills to support more people in this crisis time especially the front-liners. 

References

Cantore, N., Hartwich, F., Laplane, A., Larsen, J., Lavopa, A., Rodousakis, N. (2020, October 21). Coronavirus: the economic impact. Recovery or protracted economic downturn? The role of policies based on evidence. Policy, Research, and Statistics Department, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).   https://www.unido.org/stories/coronavirus-economic-impact-21-october-2020

Congress.gov. (2020). H.R.6201 - Families First Coronavirus Response Act.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/6201?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22family+first+coronavirus+response+act%22%5D%7D&s=3&r=5

Fowers, A & Tan, S. (2020, March 19). The new sick leave law doesn't help the workers that need it most.   https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/sick-leave-workers-coronavirus/

Frenzinger, K.E. (2021, January 4). Legal Alert: Family First Coronavirus Response Act expired on 12/31/3030, but many employees may still qualify for federal paid sick time.

https://rllaz.com/2021/01/04/legal-alert-family-first-coronavirus-response-act-expired-on-12-31-20-but-many-employees-may-still-qualify-for-federal-paid-sick-time/

Harvard Kennedy School. (2020, December 10). End of Year Review — Evidence for Policy Design Looks Back in 2020.  https://epod.cid.harvard.edu/article/end-year-review-epod-looks-back-2020

Saperstein, C., Ghosh, A., & Kessler, Z. (2020, March 18). COVID-19: Analysis of H.R. 6201, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act.  https://www.pillsburylaw.com/en/news-and-insights/hr-6201-families-first-coronavirus-response-act.html

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