As the COVID-19 pandemic has evolved in the United States, state and local actions continue to stand in stark contrast to the federal government’s. While the federal response has been characterized as a dispute between scientific facts and political preferences, many states are showing us the way forward.
After the pandemic is over, as America continues innovating and resolving jurisdictional and practical challenges related to health care and medicine, including innovative therapies that straddle the line between state and federal jurisdiction, we should consider increasing the role of state governments.
During the coronavirus pandemic, states have played important roles in the absence of federal leadership during this pandemic, including through the use of contact tracing, masking requirements, quarantines, and frequent public health briefings.
States’ historically significant health care roles have become smaller with the expansion of the many operating divisions of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Yet, despite the primacy of federal law in areas like drug regulation, states’ longstanding powers shape medicine practice through the licensing of health professionals, medical malpractice law, and products liability regimes. States also have the advantage of being closer to patients, although they certainly need more funding and aid in various forms.
States often complement the federal government’s actions or inactions. Several states used budgetary allocations or even created specific agencies to fund stem cell research after the federal funding ban announced during President George W. Bush’s administration. Some states have also enacted legislation related to informed consent and human subjects protection. Other states, including Texas and Florida, have been criticized for their markets in stem cell treatments, which still exist in the absence of federal regulation. Each of these states, and many others, can benefit from a more cooperative, shared federal-state regulatory system. ...
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