After Four Years Of Trump Health Care Sabotage, Biden Delivers In First Full Week On Promise To Expand Access
January 28, 2021
Today, in his first full week in office, President Biden is delivering on his campaign promise to restore and strengthen Americans’ access to quality, affordable health care. Biden will sign executive actions to roll back Trump’s efforts over four years to sabotage Americans’ health care and overturn the Affordable Care Act, which would have taken health care from tens of millions of Americans and eliminated preexisting condition protections for as many as 133 million.
President Biden will issue executive actions that roll back Trump’s health care sabotage and expand coverage, particularly to the most vulnerable.
Washington Post: “President Biden today will take his first steps to relax some of former president Donald Trump’s most controversial health policies. … the new Biden administration will operate under a very different framework — one that emphasizes expanding health coverage, particularly to society’s most vulnerable.”
Biden will reopen the ACA exchanges to help uninsured Americans obtain coverage in the middle of a pandemic, which Trump refused to do.
CNN: “President Joe Biden will reopen enrollment on the federal Affordable Care Act exchanges on Thursday as part of a series of executive actions related to health care, taking a step to help uninsured Americans that former President Donald Trump rejected.”
Biden will take action to undo some of Trump’s efforts to undermine the ACA, including Medicaid work requirements and policies undermining preexisting condition protections.
NPR: “Biden’s executive actions will undo some of the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine the ACA. … Biden is reversing course and directing federal agencies to reconsider those work requirement rules. He is also asking agencies to review policies that undermined protections for people with preexisting conditions, including COVID-19 related complications.”
The bottom line: Biden is following through on his campaign promise to expand access to quality, affordable health care for all Americans.
ABC News: “The action would be the president’s first step to follow through on his 2020 campaign pledge to expand the Affordable Care Act in order to provide health care to all Americans as a ‘right, not a privilege.’”
CNN: “It’s Biden’s first move toward delivering on his campaign promise to bolster the landmark health reform law that he championed as vice president. And it comes as more Americans could be facing the loss of coverage because of the pandemic-fueled economic downturn.”