U.S. President Joe Biden spoke to the joint session of Congress and the nation on Tuesday evening in the annual State of the Union address from Capitol Hill.

While most listeners were focused on issues of foreign policy and the economy, the president spent a good chunk of the one hour and 13-minute speech speaking to various health issues impacting the nation.

Here is a recap of what Biden said about these important health and wellness topics.

 

COVID-19

Although COVID-19 is still a pressing issue facing the country, the virus did not take center stage during this year's State of the Union.

Last year's address happened when the U.S. was coming down from a deadly spike of the Omicron variant.

However, this year, the cases are trending significantly down from earlier peaks with deaths coming in at about an average of 400 per day.

Biden acknowledged the proposed end to the official COVID-19 public health emergency, set to come to a close in May.

He did use the time in front of Congress to ask for more funding to use for testing, treatments, and vaccinations as his administration works to keep the virus under control when the public health emergency ends.

 

Mental Health Care

The president made mental health a focal point of his health initiatives moving into the second half of his term.

During his address, he spoke of the need for more professionals and trained first responders to combat the rising number of mental health challenges.

He paid particular attention to children's mental health, specifically on the impacts of social media.

Biden talked about the millions of American children dealing with bullying, trauma, and other issues that can lead to a poor mental health outcome.

The president used this time to talk about how his administration is holding social media companies accountable for how their products impact developing minds.

 

Price of Prescription Drugs

One of the central tenets of the State of the Union was the recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a large piece of legislation signed into law last year by President Biden.

As part of the IRA, the federal government was provided the authority to negotiate the prices of some of the most costly prescription medications.

For instance, there is now a $35 per month cap on what seniors pay out of pocket for insulin.

While the current cap only applies to Medicare recipients, Biden is asking to extend this cap to every American.

The IRA also caps the annual retail drug costs for Medicare members at $2,000.

 

Opioid Epidemic

The ongoing opioid epidemic was also thrust into the spotlight on Tuesday as Biden spoke about the thousands of Americans killed each year at the hands of these drugs.

He also made mention of the rising danger of fentanyl, particularly for younger Americans.

The president called for a renewed focus on stopping the traffic of fentanyl into the nation through the use of drug detection machines at the border and in shipping ports.

 

Women's and LGBTQ+ Rights

The president reaffirmed his commitment to the health and well-being of every American regardless of gender or sexual orientation.

While he did not spend a lot of time discussing the recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe. v Wade, he pledged to veto any bill that bans abortion on a nationwide scale.

In the same vein, he also reaffirmed his support for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community by asking Congress to pass the bipartisan Equality Act.

This legislation would protect the rights of this population by banning discrimination against any American based on gender identity or sexual orientation.

The president specifically pointed out that this legislation was especially vital to protect young transgender people.

 

Cancer Moonshot

Lastly, Biden gave an update on his administration's ambitious Cancer Moonshot initiative.

This program has the goal of reducing the death rate attributed to cancer by at least half over the next 25 years.

As part of the initiative, there are new federal programs designed to boost cancer screening rates and lower the risk of preventable cancers.



Although not all of these goals will be easy to reach, the president laid out the blueprint for what he hopes to achieve during his last two years of this term.