Rep. Cameron Sexton
Being confined to a digital meeting did not stop the Chattanooga Downtown Rotary Club from conducting their meeting on Thursday at noon. For their first May edition, Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton gave a presentation on what he believes the state needs to do as it reopens.
“The governor has done a fabulous job, and there is no right answer. The action that he took really did flatten the curve, and he bought us more time,” said Rep. Sexton. “It wasn’t to stop the economy or stop infections. It’s that we weren’t prepared to handle an increase in infection, and we didn’t have the PPE and we didn’t know if we had the hospital capacity to handle it at one time.”
Speaking of hospitals, the representative implored the Rotary Club and citizens in Tennessee to go to the hospital if they feel unwell. He attempted to dispel the myth that hospitals are the unsafe dens of virus.
“It is safe to go to the hospitals, and I think we need to do a better job of letting people know that the hospital is one of the safest places you can go if you need help,” said Rep. Sexton. “A lot of people are not going because they’re afraid of getting COVID, so they’re letting their chest pains take them at home and not going and getting help.”
In addition to hospitals, the speaker discussed the importance of making people feel safe in other public places. In his eyes, there is no benefit to opening up the economy if no one is comfortable with leaving their houses and spending their money at businesses.
“We have to instill consumer confidence that they can go there and spend their money and be safe when they go out in public,” said Rep. Sexton. “All Tennesseans need to feel safe again, and when you ask the question in polling, only 30 percent of people in the state feel safe to start back as if nothing happened.”
The representative also touched upon helping out businesses around the state. Among the ideas being tossed around are credits for tax reductions.
“As we look to reboot the economy, one of the thing we talked about was is there a way to help businesses get credit for a tax reduction for a year,” said the representative. “That can have them continue to build upon what they’re trying to do, while also providing relief.”
While Rep. Sexton is in favor of helping businesses, he also made it clear that he is not a supporter of bailing out entities. This includes states in debt, and he took several shots at states he believes are “stalling” in reopening their economy.
“It’s like one step closer to California. They had to borrow money to pay their unemployment fund from the federal government, which is one step closer to bankruptcy,” said Rep. Sexton. “So if you’re stalling your reboot, you’re affecting lives and you’re affecting businesses and you’re affecting what may happen in the future. We’re willing to help communities, but we are not willing to bail out.”
Rep. Sexton ended the presentation by giving the Rotary Club a peek into what he believed the biggest topics of the post-COVID world will be. Chief among them is the future of healthcare.
“How do you balance government regulations with independent freedom to practice healthcare, and trying to protect people’s interests,” said Rep. Sexton. “We really need to have a discussion about what is a basic healthcare plan in our state. Until we define that, it might be a high deductible, that one may be a $25 copay, and yours might be a health savings account. Everyone has a different definition of what a basic healthcare plan is.”
He said these questions will be the main topic of conversation over the next few years, or even decade.