POWER PLAYERS: The 27 people to watch for how Joe Biden and Kamala Harris could transform healthcare
Healthcare is shaping up to be a crucial issue in the 2020 presidential election.
Democratic nominee Joe Biden is running for the White House on a promise to preserve the Affordable Care Act. In contrast, Republican rival Donald Trump supports a lawsuit before the Supreme Court that threatens to invalidate the entire healthcare law.
Biden's positions on healthcare are an extension of those of his former boss, President Barack Obama, but they're also being shaped by longtime allies and Democratic advisors.
As the campaign heads into its final days, Insider has exclusively assembled a list of the most influential people shaping the Biden campaign on healthcare issues and the coronavirus pandemic. Should Biden win the presidency, many of the people who worked with him during the campaign would be in a strong position to work in his administration.
Ron Klain, for example, coordinated the US response to the Ebola epidemic under Obama and has been front and center on the Biden campaign's messaging about the coronavirus. The Biden campaign recently tapped Rohini Kosoglu as senior advisor to Kamala Harris, Biden's running mate. Kosoglu was an advisor in the Senate during the ACA's passage.
Dr. Vivek Murthy was surgeon general during Obama's presidency. Now, he's a co-chair of Biden's healthcare team and has helped iron out policy differences between the progressive and centrist wings of the Democratic party. Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a key designer of the Affordable Care Act and bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania, is on the coronavirus task force.
Also on the list are informal advisors who have the former vice president's ear, based on interviews with multiple sources close to the campaign. They include Kathleen Sebelius, who oversaw the rollout of the ACA's Healthcare.gov site.
Should Biden win the White House, these experts would shape how the US emerges from the coronavirus pandemic and how lawmakers next tackle healthcare reform.