Biden signs executive actions to 'undo the damage Trump has done' on health care
Biden has signed two executive actions -- one aimed at expanding enrollment for the Affordable Care Act amid the coronavirus pandemic and another that addresses reproductive health.
"It's been a busy week, and I've signed executive orders tackling COVID-19, the economic and climate crises, as well as advancing racial equity. But today, we're about to sign two executive orders that are, basically the best way to describe them, to undo the damage Trump has done," he said from the Oval Office Thursday.
Biden signed one executive order that will open a three-month enrollment period from Feb. 15 to May 15, allowing more Americans to sign up for health care as COVID-19 continues to engulf the country.
The Biden administration expects "most or all" of the 13 states that operate their own health insurance marketplaces to also open up enrollment at the same time it opens up the federal health insurance marketplace for a special enrollment period, a White House official said Thursday morning.
"The first one I'm going to be signing here is to strengthen Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. And of all times that we need to reinstate access to, affordability of, and extent of access to Medicaid, is now, in the middle of this COVID crisis," Biden said, stressing he wasn't initiating any new laws with his actions but strengthening provisions Trump had weakened.
He then addressed reproductive health in a presidential memorandum which rescinds the Mexico City Policy, often referred to as the "global gag rule," which was expanded under former President Donald Trump and blocks U.S. funding to international nonprofits that provide counseling or referrals for abortion, reviews Title X funding on abortion and removes the country's endorsement of the Geneva Consensus, a nonbinding declaration signed by countries opposed to abortion and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in 2020.
"The second order I'm signing relates to protecting women's health at home and abroad, and it reinstates the changes that were made to Title X and other things making it hard for women to have access to affordable health care as it relates to their reproductive rights," he said, and signed the second action.