Biden expands health coverage after years of Trump restrictions

The wave of decrees to undo the work of Donald Trump in the Government continued this Thursday with a matter of special political symbolism and no less social significance in a 2021 still marked by the pandemic: access to health.

President Joe Biden signed two executive orders that seek to reverse part of the actions carried out by the Republican to weaken the health reform that Democrat Barack Obama introduced 10 years ago.

Specifically, Biden has ordered the reopening of the term for underwriting subsidized insurance through a federal platform created by that reform and has requested the revision of the new policies that Trump had introduced for people with chronic or serious diseases, to whom coverage has historically been difficult to find.

It has also promoted measures to favor access to abortion.

Except for the poor or of retirement age, healthcare in the United States works through private insurance or direct payments out of the pocket of families.

Many citizens who lack insurance - some 27 million, 10% of the non-elderly population - think long before going to the doctor because of the high bills.

Obama's reform, with deficiencies, sought to extend insurance coverage to more citizens, but the progressive sectors of the Democratic Party claim to go further and promote universal public health, without even private insurance.

Biden does not share this position, but he is willing to strengthen the model, something that will also require difficult negotiation in Congress.

The Trump Administration did not get enough support in Congress to overturn Obama's

, popularly known as

, one of the policies most hated by conservatives.

Thus, it tried to reduce its strength through federal actions.

Now the opposite happens.

“It has been an intense week, I have signed many executive orders aimed at dealing with the covid crisis, among others, but today I am about to sign two executive orders to undo the damage that Trump has done.

We are not doing anything other than restoring the law, ”Biden said sitting in the Oval Office.

With the measures of this Thursday, the Democrat seeks to cover Americans who lost it during the pandemic - many insurance are linked to companies - or who no longer had it before starting.

Citizens of 36 states that depend on the federal insurance market can write their insurance only during a narrow window of time, six weeks in the fall, a limitation with which Obama sought to dissuade policyholders from canceling their policies (it was going to cost them everything one year to be able to hire one again).

This year's term ended in December, and Biden is now opening a special period that begins on February 15 and ends on May 15.

In addition, the new government will resume the awareness and publicity campaign that Trump suspended.

On the other hand, Biden wants to reverse other Trump policies that made life difficult for Americans with serious or chronic illnesses and those beneficiaries of the Medicaid program, which covers the poor or disabled.

The Republican Government facilitated the sale of short-term insurance, which, unlike the rest, does not have an obligation to cover people with these special care conditions.

In addition, it imposed job requirements on low-income people.

Biden also gives a boost to access to abortion by lifting a restriction whereby public money could not be used in clinics that advise on interruptions of pregnancy both in national territory and abroad.

It is the least of surprises.

It is a restriction known as the Mexico City Policy —which was first applied by the Ronald Reagan Administration and is named after the city where it was announced— that Republican or Democratic governments introduce or eliminate as they pass through the White House. .

The general debate on healthcare intensified during the election campaign, especially in the wake of the pandemic, and has brutally exposed the problems of the US healthcare system.

A study by the Fair Health entity last July placed the average cost of treatment for covid at $ 34,662 for patients between 20 and 30 years old and $ 45,683 for those between 50 and 60 years old, although the rescue plan included aid public for the pandemic, a kind of exception within the model.