This editorial was originally published Sunday in KPC News.
When you have a health issue, you generally don’t go see your local county commissioner for a diagnosis.
Maybe you’ll find a local elected administrator who is also a doctor as his or her day job, but the vast majority of local elected leaders have no relevant medical training.
Sadly, Senate Bill 5, which has passed both houses of the Indiana General Assembly with support from only the Republican supermajorities, seeks to do just that.
The bill states that in a health emergency, localities could enact a public health order less stringent than one issued by the governor, allowing local units to effectively countermand the directives of the state.
That aspect in itself runs counter to a federalist system, where normally underlying units can only make laws more stringent than those above them. For example, since the state says you can’t sell alcohol before noon on Sunday, a local county doesn’t have to power to say, “Well, we want to sell booze all day on Sunday, at any hour!”
That’s not how state and local governments work.
Furthermore, if a local health department wants to approve an order more stringent than an existing state order — such as approve a county mask mandate — they’d be forced to get the approval of the local elected body, such as the county commissioners.
The bill also would add more levers to remove a county health officer from service and adds a stipulation that the appointment of a new health officer, who is selected by the local Board of Health, must be subject to approval from the county executives.
Indiana Republicans have fallen back on the “un-elected bureaucrats” excuse so often bandied about as reason why elected officials need more say.
But they simultaneously fail to inform anyone as to who appoints the members of the Board of Health: IC 16-20-2-6, Appointment of members, tells you that “the county executive shall appoint the members of a local board of health.” So, yes, the elected officials already have their say.
Membership on that board of health also comes with qualificiations. The board must include at least two licensed physicians; then two representatives from among other specific groups such as registered nurses, registered pharmacists, dentists, environmental scientists, veterinarians, attorneys fluent in legal health matters or hospital administrators; as well as two members of the general public and one additional member either from the qualified groups or from the general public.
The local board of health then selects a health officer, and naturally that person is also typically a medical doctor themselves or someone else intimately involved with public health as their profession.
The health officer and the county health board are people knowledgeable and qualified to make public health decisions. They are appointed by elected officials and can be changed by said elected officials if they are unhappy with the board’s performance.
As an appointed board, the Board of Health is therefore not beholden to the same type of political considerations as elected officials, which is a quality people should want in those making health decisions.
In most cases, including locally, the county health department and county commissioners work together in tandem, for the good of the people.
But in situations where those two groups don’t get along or see eye-to-eye, does Indiana want their doctors and nurses making health decisions, or do they want their politicians doing it?
We encourage Gov. Eric Holcomb to kill Senate Bill 5 with a veto and legislators to leave it dead.
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