How Healthcare is Expected to Change in 2021
With the recent election of Joe Biden into the presidential office, things are bound to change in many areas of life. As of his inauguration on January 20, President Biden has already signed into order 24 executive orders, including EO14008: Tackling Climate Change at Home and Abroad and EO 14003: Protecting the American Work Force. Among these Executive orders, several are specifically targeted towards improving healthcare, especially in the midst of the treacherous COVID 19 pandemic. These executive orders include EO 13997: Improving and Expanding Access to Care and Treatments for COVID 19 and EO 13996: Establishing the COVID 19 Pandemic Testing Board and Ensuring a Sustainable Public Health Workforce for COVID 19 and Other Biological Threats.
In addition to signing executive orders that affect people's access to care and treatments in the midst of COVID 19. President Biden is also taking steps to make healthcare more widely available and affordable for all groups of people. For example, Biden plans to reopen healthcare.gov markets, as well as restore Affordable Care Acts and Medicaid to the way they were "before Trump became president." Biden's plans for healthcare most closely align with those that were set in place prior to Trump by then-president Obama. In fact, Biden has promised to build on Obama's healthcare plan. Much like Obama, it is Biden's dream to attain healthcare insurance coverage for all Americans, regardless of financial background.
In the United States, healthcare is not nationalized. Oftentimes, it is only available to a portion of the population, leaving many people without access to the care that they need. Many people rely on private insurance and government programs, such as Medicare or Medicaid, to cover medical costs that are through-the-roof expensive. The inconsistency of Americans' access to healhcare makes healthcare and its constituents a personal issue, at least in President Biden's opinion. President Biden plans to break through the barriers of healthcare and make healthcare a right that all humans have equal access to, isntead of a luxury. It will certianly be interesting to see what Biden accomplishes and what changes in healthcare he implements while in office.
Sources:
https://www.federalregister.gov/presidential-documents/executive-orders/joe-biden/2021
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/1/28/biden-works-to-widen-americans-access-to-health-care