As for skepticism, okay, but reaching across the aisle for common ends is how political change actually happens in the real world. Preaching to the choir is worthless, except for getting re-elected.
Regarding my skepticism - In the post-Gingrich era, it seems imprudent to assume that unsubstantiated political claims are being made in good faith. While I'd personally be delighted if American conservatives were to suddenly support expanding access to healthcare and implementing policies that target so-called "deaths of despair," I'll believe it when I see it at the polls. I hope that this crisis does lead to positive political change, but, for conservatives to reach across the aisle and work on expanding access to healthcare, they would first have to stop trying to reduce access to healthcare.
Until we get past Covid-19, I don't think it's unreasonable to treat conservative concerns regarding access to healthcare and/or economic precarity with a bit of skepticism.
The few conservatives I know who legitimately consider reopening to be first/foremost about minimizing deaths are the kinds of conservatives who live affluent lives working desk jobs they inherited through nepotism, who only endorse the ideas of individual liberty and rights because they think it'll keep their taxes lower, and who endorsed lockdowns until they started to affect their pocketbooks.
Wow, I must have missed that queue.
As for taxes, they're screwed, for decades. I don't think it really matters which path we take--our tax load to pay for it all will be epic.
At least we can try hard to save lives, though.
a) The government is violating basic rights in its reaction to Covid-19, and/or
b) Covid-19 is not a significant threat (and may even be a conspiracy); therefore any government reaction is excessive and unwarranted.
I emphatically agree with you that deaths of despair and lack of access to healthcare are both huge problems in the US. Of course, this was clearly true long before Covid-19 existed, though, so I'm going to be a bit skeptical if I encounter conservatives suddenly championing these issues. [0]
0 - Being that, of course, American conservatives typically oppose policies meant to expand access to healthcare or provide relief to those on the economic margins of our society.