• • Former Vice President Joe Biden is the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, facing off against President Donald Trump on Election Day. 
  • To advise on healthcare, Biden has surrounded himself with longtime aides and alumni from the Obama White House, as well as advisers to Hillary Clinton. 
  • Ezekiel Emanuel, one of the lead architects of the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” is advising the Biden campaign on coronavirus safety. 
  • Chris Jennings and Drs. Lisa Fitzpatrick, Rebekah Gee, and Vivek Murthy are leading the Biden campaign’s healthcare policy committee. 
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Healthcare is shaping up to be a crucial issue in November’s presidential election.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, who supports incremental changes to the Affordable Care Act, will face off against President Donald Trump, who is still pushing for a repeal of the ACA and hasn’t yet accomplished his goal to significantly lower drug prices.

Polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows healthcare is the top issue for Democratic voters and swing voters. For Republicans, the top issue is the economy. The coronavirus pandemic has strained both the US economy and its healthcare system. 

Many of Biden’s healthcare policy positions are an extension of former President Barack Obama’s legislative wins, but they’re also being shaped by longtime allies and Democratic advisers. During his primary campaign, Biden frequently leaned on defending the ACA, slamming Democratic rivals who wanted to pass “Medicare for All.” 

Medicare for All would abolish nearly all private health insurance in favor of enrolling everyone in the US into a single government plan.

Biden’s other positions on healthcare are in line with the Democratic party and have been shaped by his personal experiences, including losing his son Beau Biden to cancer in 2015.

On prescription drugs, Biden has voiced support for allowing the government to set prices and for importing medicines from countries where they cost less. He’s pledged to pour resources into finding cancer cures and to protect patients from getting large medical bills. 

Now that he’s the presumptive nominee, Biden has changed his positions only a little. In April, he called for lowering Medicare eligibility from age 65 to 60.

Amid the pandemic, he has surrounded himself with advisers from the Obama White House to counsel on the coronavirus. The advisers will “provide science-based, expert advice regarding steps the campaign should take to minimize health risks for the candidate, staff, and supporters,” the campaign said. 

Business Insider has assembled a list of influential healthcare policy experts for the Biden campaign.

The list below includes Biden’s formal healthcare advisers: Consultant Chris Jennings and Drs. Lisa Fitzpatrick, Vivek Murthy, and Rebekah Gee. Based on interviews with people close to the campaign, the list also includes informal advisers such as Kathleen Sebelius and Andy Slavitt.

The list is arranged alphabetically and will be updated periodically.

Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/list-people-advising-joe-biden-campaign-on-healthcare-2020-5