Joe Biden Signs Executive Orders on Healthcare Remarks Transcript January 28

President Joe Biden: (00:00)
Since we are socially distanced, I think I can take my mask off to make this very brief announcement. I know you’ve been briefed by the healthcare team about what this is about, and there’s an easy and quick way for us to describe this. It’s been a busy week and I’ve signed executive orders tackling COVID-19, economic and climate crises, as well as advancing racial equity. But today I’m about to sign two executive orders, basically the best way to describe them, to undo the damage Trump has done. There’s nothing new that we’re doing here other than restoring the affordable care act and restoring the Medicaid to the way it was before Trump became president, which by [inaudible 00:00:00:49], he changed, made more inaccessible or expensive and more difficult for people to qualify for either of those two items, the affordable care act or Medicaid. And the second order I’m going to be signing also changes what the president has done, the president, the former president has done, and that a memorandum reversed my predecessor’s attack on women’s health, excuse me, health access and as we continue to battle COVID-19, even more critical Americans have meaningful access to healthcare.

President Joe Biden: (01:31)
And so that’s what I’m about to do, and again, I’m not initiating any new law, any new aspects of the law. This is going back to what the situation was prior to the president’s executive orders. And 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. And the second order I’m signing relates to protecting women’s health at home and abroad and it reinstates the changes that were made in Title 10 and other things, making it harder for women to have access to affordable health care as it relates to their reproductive rights.