State lawmakers want to change the way Alabama handles future lockdowns
Updated Feb 09, 2021;
Facebook Share
The shutdown could not come at any worse time last spring for the mom-and-pop children’s boutiques in state Rep. David Wheeler’s district.
“Easter was their business,” said Wheeler, R-Vestavia Hills. “Yet, there was Target and Walmart open and selling children’s clothes.”
Owners had no recourse, and nowhere to lodge their complaints, he said. Wheeler wants to change that and is pitching legislation creating a citizens’ health advisory board in Jefferson County to provide oversight of the county’s health officer.
He’s not alone. A host of mostly Republican state lawmakers, relegated to the regulatory sideline for much of the coronavirus pandemic, want to enter the fray during future health emergencies and are pitching bills aimed at reforming the public health administration in Alabama.
Mississippi Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann expresses his continued concern over COVID-19 and explained measures the Senate will take to protect themselves and staff during the upcoming 2021 Legislature, during a briefing to media at the Mississippi Capitol in Jackson, Miss., in December.
Rogelio V. Solis | AP
Even as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to shine a harsh light on stateâs long-standing health disparities, the prospects appear dim for any expansion of Medicaid access to the stateâs working poor.
Both Gov. Tate Reeves and Speaker of the House Philip Gunn oppose expansion of the Medicaid program, but Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann continues to voice a willingness to consider some version of the idea.
JACKSON • Even as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to shine a harsh light on state’s long-standing health disparities, the prospects appear dim for any expansion of Medicaid access to the