As expected, President Biden’s State of the Union address last night mentioned health care multiple times. The President spoke extensively about HRSNs like infrastructure, the economy, housing and water quality. President Biden criticized the previous Administration for, in the President’s estimation, adding to the debt and eroding access to reproductive health care services, and promised to protect Medicare from “Republicans who want to cut Social Security and give tax cuts to the wealthy.” Other policy ideas shared in the address include:

• Lowering prescription drug costs by capping total out-of-pocket prescription drug costs at $2,000 and allowing Medicare to negotiate for 500 more drugs;
• Expanding tax credits for childcare and housing;
• Increasing educational investments, like Pell Grants and schoolteacher salaries, to improve the workforce pipeline;
• Amending the tax code and reinvesting those earnings into better public health investments like paid family leave.