From the outset, President Biden’s administration faced major public health challenges, including the coronavirus pandemic, rising medical costs and prescription costs, and reversing health care costs. Roe vs. Wadethe worsening climate crisis, the opioid epidemic, and more.
In response, the Biden administration is moving forward in several key areas, including advancing environmental justice, strengthening reproductive health rights, promoting gun safety, expanding health insurance coverage, and reducing rising prescription drug costs. had important and sometimes historical influence.
Here are some of the administration’s biggest victories.
Reducing exposure to hazardous chemicals
lead
Approximately 9 million homes in the United States receive water through traditional lead pipes. Under the Biden administration, the Environmental Protection Agency will require every U.S. city to require households within the next 10 years to reduce lead exposure from drinking water, which can cause developmental delays in children and other lifelong health effects. moved to require the replacement of these pipes.
Biden also cracked down on lead paint, declaring that any amount of lead dust found on the floors and window frames of American homes is dangerous. Thirty-one million homes, more than one-third of all homes in the United States, still contain lead-based paint, which was banned in 1978.
asbestos
One of the big wins was Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Project This was a decisive step to ban the use of chrysotile asbestos, the only form of the dangerous chemical still in use in the United States. The EPA regulations are the first significant federal action in decades. The EPA banned asbestos in 1989, but that rule has largely been overturned. 1991 Court Decision.
The chemical is used in roofing, textiles and various car parts and has been linked to lung cancer and mesothelioma. It is already banned in 50 other countries.
Administration too established a new standard To permanently reduce chemicals in Americans’ drinking water.
protect vulnerable communities
The administration has focused on reducing environmental health disparities, and these efforts have “provided infrastructure funding to make communities more resilient to extreme climate change,” he said. thomas burkePh.D., MPH, Professor Emeritus Health policy and management.
written in inflation control law, EPA Community Change Grant This is the largest direct community investment in environmental justice in history, with 20 investments in projects that deploy clean energy, strengthen climate resilience, and help communities address environmental and climate justice challenges. Allocate $1 billion.
While environmental justice appears to be a focus for the incoming administration, the Biden administration has already allocated tens of millions of dollars to address the unequal burdens of pollution.
Strengthening post-abortion accessegg
Under the Biden administration, the FDA issued new rules allowing retail pharmacies to dispense the abortion drug mifepristone to people with a prescription and also allowing delivery by mail. Previously, these pills had to be ordered, prescribed, and dispensed by a certified healthcare provider.
rear Roe vs. Wade That ruling was overturned by the Supreme Court, but the Biden administration reminded emergency medical professionals of their obligation to perform emergency abortions when necessary to protect a pregnant woman’s health. Emergency medical care and labor law (Mtala.)
“The Biden administration’s guidance on EMTALA was a public health victory that will likely disappear once President Trump takes office.” Joan Rosen, J.D., M.A.; Senior Lecturer health policy and management Researchers who study the impact of law and policy on sexual and reproductive health rights.
According to SCOTUS, Biden’s progress on reproductive rights faces major headwinds in the future: Two separate rulings in 2024 appeared to leave the door open in preparation for future litigation that could jeopardize future access to mifepristone and challenge the legality of EMTALA.
historic gun safety laws
Biden signed the first major federal gun safety law in nearly 30 years with bipartisan support, scoring a major victory on one of the country’s most vexing policy challenges.
Bipartisan bill includes incentives for states to pass extreme risk protection orderor red flag laws, allow groups to petition courts to remove weapons from people they deem to be a threat to themselves or others.
The bill also expands background checks for people between the ages of 18 and 21 seeking to purchase guns; expand the law This prohibits spouses and ex-spouses, as well as romantic partners convicted of domestic violence, from owning guns.
Prescription drug cost reduction
Americans pay some of the highest prescription drug prices in the world, and “this was one of the major challenges facing the American people at the beginning of the Biden administration,” he said. Gerald F. AndersonPh.D., Professor health policy and management. “The Inflation Control Act contained four very important elements that will lower drug prices now and in the future,” he says. They include:
- For the first time, it allows Medicare to negotiate prices on certain drugs. The administration announced in August that it had reached new price reduction agreements for 10 high-cost drugs, including best-selling drugs for heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
- Starting in 2025, Medicare recipients will have a $2,000 cap on their out-of-pocket drug costs.
- The cap on insulin prices for Medicare beneficiaries is $35.
- Create penalties for drug companies that raise prices above the rate of inflation.
expand access to care
The number of participants in the Affordable Care Act has increased every year since the Biden administration, reaching a record high of 24 million in 2025. Due to the rapid increase in the number of enrollees, the uninsured rate fell from 14.5% to 11%.
The administration increased ACA subsidies in 2021 under the American Rescue Plan and extended them through 2025 under the Inflation Control Act. This means more Americans will be able to receive discounted health insurance under this program.
The subsidy also reduced premiums for eligible enrollees by 44%, or $705 per year. According to KFF. These subsidies expire at the end of next year unless Congress extends them.
Addressing the opioid crisis
The Biden administration helped expand existing rules to make it easier to access the opioid addiction treatment drugs buprenorphine and methadone via telemedicine. Biden also signed a bill in December 2022 that would make it easier to prescribe buprenorphine by removing the requirement for a physician to request a waiver.
The administration has worked to make the opioid overdose drug naloxone available in more locations, including federal facilities and schools, paving the way for over-the-counter sales of naloxone. naloxone nasal spray.
What’s next?
Many of Biden’s victories could face challenges from the incoming administration, including a conservative judiciary that is a legacy of President Trump’s first term. It is up to public health advocates to remember the impact of these victories and inform future efforts to improve the health of Americans.
Annalies Winny is a writer and producer at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
