Rep. Kathy Rapp, R-Warren, is under fire for not moving legislation mandating a patient-to-staff ratio for nurses at Pennsylvania hospitals through the Health Committee she chairs.

At first glance, the fact that the bill is sponsored by a fellow Republican and has 105 co-sponsors would make Rapp’s unwillingness to move the bill through the committee curious. After all, who doesn’t want to make sure there are enough nurses to care for patients in our hospitals?

Rapp says she doesn’t believe the state should get involved in contractual matters between hospitals and their staff. That argument, frankly, is hogwash. We would direct Rapp to a better reason not to move this bill through committee — real life happening north of the Pennsylvania state line.

New York legislators have been pushing a bill for hospital nurse staffing ratios for some time. But New York’s own state Health Department — no bastion of conservatism, mind you — said in a 2020 report found that so many nurses would be needed to meet the nurse-to-patient ratio that there wouldn’t be enough nurses to fill available positions in the future and increase costs an additional $1.8 to $2.4 billion, roughly 40 to 53% for hospitals and $1.9 to $2.3 billion for nursing homes, or between 79 and 96%.

When New York did pass a state law mandating nursing homes spend at least 70% of revenue on direct patient care and at least 40% of that revenue on resident staffing, its implementation was delayed 30 days by Gov. Kathy Hochul after more than 250 New York operators filed a lawsuit to overturn it. One reason argument made by the nursing homes is that the law doesn’t factor in the difficulty finding nursing home staff, meaning a nearly constant battle over waivers with state regulators that takes away from the real work of taking care of nursing home patients.

California, meanwhile, actually implemented a nurse-to-patient ratio requirement for its hospitals and has had issues implementing it because there aren’t enough nurses to meet the law’s requirement. In March 2020, the California Health Department paid a traveling nurse provider up to $1 billion over six months to help hospitals meet nursing and other shortages. In December 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsome issued a statewide order giving hospitals a waiver for the order.

There is no easy solution to the stresses in our health care system, so no one should think that mandated nurse-to-patient ratios will be a miracle cure. Rapp is right for delaying this bill in her committee, even if it is for the wrong reasons.