President-Elect Biden’s Plans on COVID-19 and Health Care

By Nancy Jiang ’23

Staff Writer

After Joe Biden was announced the winner of the presidential election, focus turned toward the policies he will be bringing into office on Jan. 20, 2021. As cases rise around the country, a particular area of interest is Biden’s COVID-19 strategy. 

According to Biden’s Nov. 13 statement, people need to see a change in the approach to the pandemic. Biden said, “I will not be president until next year. The crisis does not respect dates on the calendar, it is accelerating right now.” 

A representative from Biden’s team said that officials from the Department of Health and Human Services have gathered to plan a vaccination campaign for February and March focusing on logistics and policies. They will also consider factors such as prioritizing vaccination and distribution based on socioeconomic and racial equity. 

Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have promised that their administration will increase testing sites, supply more personal protective equipment and implement comprehensive guidance on social distancing nationwide. Whether these promises will be effective in combating COVID-19 remains uncertain, as details on policy implementation are relatively unknown.

Aside from issues on a national level, Biden promised to restore the relationship between the U.S. and the World Health Organization to fix issues caused by the pandemic. Biden tweeted: “On my first day as President, I will rejoin the @WHO and restore our leadership on the world stage.” Although there is no formal procedure required for rejoining the WHO, similar to Trump’s withdrawal from the organization, returning would be as easy as an executive action. However, given that many other countries are actively improving their own health care systems and contributing to global wellness, it could be difficult for the U.S. to “restore [its] leadership on the world stage.” The U.S. has been hugely impacted by previous failures in preventing and responding to the pandemic.

Biden’s health care policy, which promotes the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, has also recently received attention because it relates to COVID-19 vaccine distribution and vaccination costs.

The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, requires all U.S. citizens to be enrolled in a health insurance plan approved by ACA guidelines. The ACA is designed to assist both individuals and families who cannot afford a health care plan by reducing their fees. People with preexisting conditions would also have greater options available and would not need to worry about being denied health care by private insurance companies under this plan. Signed by former President Barack Obama in 2010, the ACA has since been challenged as unconstitutional by various district courts. In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for the ACA to coerce states into expanding Medicaid programs, though it ruled that the law as a whole was constitutional. Moreover, the ACA received massive opposition from members of the Republican Party. One Republican dissenter called the plan a “welfare program disguised” and cited concerns that under ACA, they would pay more in taxes for strangers who may use their money on medical procedures conservatives oppose, such as abortions. In response, Biden aims to “protect the Affordable Care Act from these continued attacks” and make the system less complex to navigate.

One of the key campaign promises that President Donald Trump ran on in the 2016 presidential election was to repeal the ACA. However, the ACA has actually become more favorable among the public during Trump’s presidential term. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the percentage of those who favor the ACA increased from approximately 40 percent in March 2016 to 55 percent in October 2020. The poll also shows that two-thirds of Republicans, along with 79 percent of all people surveyed, do nott want the court to overturn the protections the ACA gives those with preexisting conditions. Republicans believe that protecting people with preexisting conditions is still important even though they want to overturn the ACA as a whole.

As mandated by Massachusetts law, all Mount Holyoke students are required to have health insurance even if studying remotely. The only exception is for students studying remotely in another country. Mount Holyoke charges all students for the Student Health Insurance Plan, which is ACA compliant. Students whose family insurance meets the Massachusetts state requirements can waive their fees.