In The Columbus Dispatch, Buckeye’s James Woodward, Ph.D., outlines how Ohio can expand access to health care—particularly in rural Ohio— by permanently expanding access to telehealth, reducing employment barriers for advanced practice registered nurses, allowing pharmacists to provide the medical care they are trained to provide and recognizing out-of-state licenses for medical professionals.
In Policy Solutions for the Pandemic: Protecting Businesses and Workers from COVID-19 Related Lawsuits, The Buckeye Institute calls on policymakers to provide businesses and workers with immunity from COVID-19 related lawsuits as long as they are taking reasonable steps to keep Ohioans healthy and safe. “As Ohio begins to safely reopen, policymakers must ensure that workers and businesses that take reasonable precautions to protect customers from COVID-19 do not become victims of needless lawsuits.”
The Buckeye Institute submitted written testimony to the Ohio Senate Local Government, Public Safety, and Veterans Affairs Committee on the policies in Senate Bill 303, which would allow pharmacists to care for those with chronic conditions. Noting that the policies in Senate Bill 303 are a “step in the right direction,” Buckeye urged policymakers to “build on Senate Bill 303’s foundation with policies that will help Ohioans access the sort of drug treatment already offered in Florida and other states.”
In Policy Solutions for the Pandemic: Bail Reform Will Keep Our Communities Safer, The Buckeye Institute calls on the Ohio Supreme Court to enact a temporary bail reform rule to take immediate effect that includes a presumption against cash bail and provisions that ensure judges base pretrial detention decisions on a defendant’s threat to the community and risk of non-appearance for trial. The General Assembly should then make the court’s emergency rule permanent.
In Policy Solutions for the Pandemic: Expanding Broadband to Underserved Areas, The Buckeye Institute calls on Ohio to offer targeted state grants to deploy high-speed broadband service to underserved areas of the state, writing, “We have recommended expanding Ohio’s telehealth services for routine medical care and bolstering education savings accounts to help families afford the unanticipated costs of distance learning online for their now ‘home schooled’ children. Both recommendations require high-speed broadband internet access.”
Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute, issued a statement thanking United States Senator Rob Portman of Ohio for his leadership in calling on the Small Business Administration to allow people who have a criminal record but have turned their lives around and started a small business to qualify for the Paycheck Protection Program.
In Policy Solutions for the Pandemic: Roadmap to Reopen Ohio Safely, The Buckeye Institute outlines several principles that should guide policymakers along the “road back to normal.” In the memo, Buckeye offers policy solutions on how to protect public health, how to jumpstart a dormant economy, how to balance Ohio’s budget, and how to prepare Ohio for tomorrow.
In Reforming Bail Reform, The Buckeye Institute urges the Ohio Supreme Court to rescind a last-minute change to Ohio’s new proposed bail rule (Criminal Rule 46) that threatens to “undermine the pro-liberty and pro-safety reforms” included in the original proposed rule. In the brief, Geisler writes, “Ohio’s over-reliance on cash bail fails to keep our communities safe and perpetuates injustice in our criminal justice system.”
Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute, testified to the prestigious and influential National Coronavirus Recovery Commission offering his advice as the Commission considers public policy recommendations to address the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of “saving lives and livelihoods.”
In a new policy memo, Policy Solutions for the Pandemic: Remove Tariffs to Access Critical Supplies and Restart the Economy, The Buckeye Institute called for the elimination of tariffs and trade barriers on essential equipment and medical products used in the fight against COVID-19. The memo further outlines why policymakers should permanently eliminate tariffs to jumpstart dormant economic activity.
