President Joe Biden touted his administration’s accomplishments in well being care in a wide-ranging State of the Union handle on Thursday night that touched on topics reminiscent of immigration, the financial system, crime, job development, infrastructure, and the Israel-Hamas battle.
With Biden and former President Donald Trump now the presumptive Democratic and Republican nominees, Biden used the roughly 68-minute speech to counter his lackluster public approval scores and draw clear contrasts between his administration’s insurance policies and people of Trump and a few congressional Republicans. However he by no means talked about Trump by identify, as an alternative referring to him as his “predecessor.”
Biden got here out swinging, talking about freedom and democracy, and help for Ukraine and NATO. And he reminded lawmakers that historical past is watching.
Our PolitiFact companions fact-checked the controversy in actual time. Learn the full protection right here.
Early within the speech, Biden pointed to the current Alabama Supreme Court docket choice that successfully shut down in vitro fertilization remedies throughout the state, though its governor signed a invoice into regulation March 6 to protect sufferers and suppliers from potential authorized legal responsibility.
Biden challenged his “associates throughout the aisle” to “assure the appropriate to IVF nationwide,” and linked this problem on to the 2022 Supreme Court docket choice overturning Roe v. Wade.
White Home friends for the speech included Latorya Beasley of Birmingham, Alabama, whose IVF remedies have been canceled due to her state’s court docket choice; and Kate Cox, who was denied an emergency abortion by the Texas Supreme Court docket. Members of the Democratic Ladies’s Caucus sat en bloc, carrying white to point out solidarity for reproductive rights.
“Like most Individuals, I consider Roe v. Wade obtained it proper,” Biden mentioned, including that his “predecessor” got here to workplace “decided” to see it overturned and has bragged about its undoing. “Clearly, these bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade haven’t any clue concerning the energy of ladies in America.”
Biden’s different well being care hits included the primary steps in implementing Medicare drug value negotiations, one thing on Democrats’ longtime coverage want listing that grew to become regulation as a part of the Inflation Discount Act he signed in August 2022. He famous that the federal medical insurance program for seniors is now — for the primary time — negotiating decrease costs for a number of the costliest medicine available on the market. He pointed not solely to the financial savings it might convey seniors, but in addition to the federal funds. Presently, 10 medicine might be added to the listing yearly. Biden known as for an growth of this system: “Now it’s time to go additional and provides Medicare the facility to barter decrease costs for 500 medicine over the following decade.”
He additionally claimed victory with different Medicare-related modifications in that regulation — together with a $35 insulin value cap and a $2,000 value cap on Medicare out-of-pocket drug bills. In every of case, he challenged Congress to behave with him to increase these steps to incorporate everybody.
When it got here to the Reasonably priced Care Act, he mentioned it’s “nonetheless a really huge deal” and pledged not solely to guard it, but in addition to increase it by working to make everlasting the tax subsidies first superior on the peak of the covid-19 pandemic to make medical insurance extra inexpensive.
“My predecessor and plenty of on this chamber wish to take that safety away by repealing the Reasonably priced Care Act; I received’t let that occur,” he mentioned, drawing heckles from opponents within the viewers.
Afterward, some Republicans, together with Home Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), mentioned the handle was overly partisan. Trump slammed it, telling Fox Information that Biden “suffers from a terminal case of Trump derangement syndrome.” And Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) gave the GOP response.
Listed here are well being care highlights from PolitiFact:
“The Alabama Supreme Court docket shut down IVF remedies throughout the state, unleashed by a Supreme Court docket choice overturning Roe v. Wade.”
On Feb. 16, the Alabama Supreme Court docket issued a ruling that mentioned frozen embryos needs to be thought-about kids.
The choice lacks the facility to close down in vitro fertilization remedies statewide. But it surely triggered a number of clinics within the state to pause IVF remedies as they reviewed the choice and potential liabilities.
Since then, Alabama lawmakers handed laws to protect IVF suppliers from civil or prison legal responsibility in a rush to guard fertility remedies after backlash grew. Two clinics introduced they have been resuming operations after Republican Gov. Kay Ivey signed the regulation.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Sick.) — who had two daughters utilizing in vitro fertilization — launched a related federal invoice geared toward defending IVF. However Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) blocked it Feb. 28, saying it was a “huge overreach that is filled with poison capsules that go method too far — far past making certain authorized entry to IVF.”
“In case you, the American individuals, ship me a Congress that helps the appropriate to decide on, I promise you: I’ll restore Roe v. Wade because the regulation of the land once more.”
PolitiFact continues to charge Biden’s promise to codify Roe v. Wade as “Stalled.”
Biden known as on Congress to assist him obtain his 2020 marketing campaign promise to codify Roe v. Wade.
He can’t do it alone.
The Supreme Court docket dominated in 2022 to overturn Roe, ending practically 50 years of federally protected abortion entry.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) launched the Ladies’s Well being Safety Act of 2023, which might prohibit governmental restrictions on entry to abortion. But it surely has no Republican co-sponsors and didn’t advance.
PolitiFact has been monitoring Biden’s marketing campaign promise to codify Roe v. Wade, certainly one of about 100 guarantees on the Biden Promise Tracker. The dearth of 10 Republicans wanted to beat an anticipated filibuster has stalled Biden’s efforts on codification. That impediment remained even after Democrats saved slim management of the Senate within the midterms.
“Individuals pay extra for prescribed drugs than wherever on this planet.”
PolitiFact rated the same declare by Biden as “Principally True.”
U.S. per capita spending on prescribed drugs is almost thrice the common of different superior, industrialized nations that comprise the Group for Financial Co-operation and Improvement. A research by the Rand Corp., a nonpartisan analysis group, discovered that, throughout all medicine, U.S. costs have been 2.78 occasions as excessive because the mixed costs in 33 OECD nations.
The hole was even bigger for brand-name medicine, with U.S. costs averaging 4.22 occasions as a lot as these compared nations. The U.S. pays lower than comparable nations for unbranded, generic medicine, which account for about 90% of stuffed prescriptions within the nation but make up solely one-fifth of prescription drug spending.
Researchers say components together with country-specific pricing, confidential rebates, and different reductions can obscure precise costs, making comparisons more durable.