This opinion piece appeared in The Columbus Dispatch.

Gov. Mike DeWine has taken strong, proactive steps to manage the COVID-19 crisis. More courageous decisions will be necessary in the coming days and weeks to aid our hospitals, our families and our businesses. But with cooperation, strong leadership and sound decision-making, Ohio will not only survive today’s medical and economic challenges, but will emerge stronger and more prepared for tomorrow.

Governor DeWine wisely expanded access to telehealth providers so that doctors and nurses can see more patients quickly and safely. Making health care more accessible during this crisis will prove to be one silver lining to this otherwise dark cloud.

Another will be the lessons learned as we address the currently underfunded Unemployment Trust Fund, so that the next time Ohio faces a roiling fiscal crisis it has a safer harbor for weathering the storm. But in the meantime, state policymakers should continue working proactively for the health and prosperity of their constituents.

Ohio boasts some of the greatest health care systems in the world, but legal red tape keeps some doctors and nurses from practicing to their full potential. The state should suspend or repeal scope-of-practice laws that prevent advanced nurses from practicing fully and ease regulations that make it harder for licensed out-of-state doctors and nurses to practice here. Licensing boards should certify out-of-state health care providers.

COVID-19 may soon present an all-hands-on-deck medical situation, and unnecessary restrictions should not keep trained practitioners from treating patients. In fact, Ohio should mobilize medical and nursing students to help as they can during the crisis and should allow pharmacists to diagnose and treat some common ailments such as the flu and strep throat.

Other states have already seen the wisdom of letting trained medical students and pharmacists ease the burden on doctors and hospitals.

The COVID-19 health crisis risks creating another crisis — an economic one for families and businesses. Ohio must quickly repair the financial damage already inflicted by closures and “social distancing” and carefully avoid the policy pitfalls of previous economic crises that prolonged our recovery. Before the tech bubble burst in the early 2000s and before the Great Recession in 2008, for example, Ohio had been recklessly overspending. When those fiscal crises arrived, the state imposed dramatic, indiscriminate spending cuts and tax increases that only greased the economic skids.

New demands on Ohio’s health care system will require more state funding and support. But that funding must be disciplined. Using The Buckeye Institute’s Piglet Book, the General Assembly should redirect money currently spent on pork projects to fund essential health care resources. The capital budget should prudently bolster the state’s health care infrastructure, but now is not the time simply to open the state’s coffers and spend without thinking.

Instead of sweeping tax-and-spend policies that will be politically and economically painful to unwind, Ohio should prioritize relief funds. Wasteful government spending should be redirected to small businesses most effected by the crisis and hourly wage-earners who cannot work from home but must now take time off to care for children home from school. Available federal aid, strategically drawn rainy-day funds and temporary assistance programs should provide targeted relief to businesses and workers struggling through this crisis.

Finally, Ohio should negotiate an interest-free federal loan for the Unemployment Trust Fund to help offset rising unemployment payments without incurring expensive interest charges. Ohio failed to fix that fund and now faces rapidly rising unemployment that will exhaust its resources. That lesson should be learned and it should never happen again.

Responding to COVID-19 requires leadership, fortitude, cooperation and clear thinking. It requires public officials, businesses, volunteer organizations and individuals working together with our health care communities to keep our families healthy and our economy strong. This can and will be done, and Ohio will make a full recovery.

Rea S. Hederman Jr. is the executive director of the Economic Research Center at The Buckeye Institute in Columbus and vice president of policy. Piglet Book® is a registered trademark of Citizens Against Government Waste and is used with their permission.