Former New York City mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg is taking the preliminary steps to run for president in 2020, The New York Times reports.
Though he has not officially declared his candidacy, Mr. Bloomberg is filing paperwork to get on the ballot for the Democratic presidential primary in Alabama, which closes its application process Nov. 8, according to the report. Advisers of Mr. Bloomberg told The New York Times his last-minute decision to run is largely motivated by faltering confidence in former Vice President Joe Biden, who has a similar voting base of centrist Democrats. For more on Mr. Bloomberg's potential run, read the full story from The New York Times here.
Three quick notes on Mr. Bloomberg's healthcare views:
1. He wants to preserve private health insurance. "I think you can have 'Medicare for All' for people that are uncovered," he said in January, according to The New York Times. "But to replace the entire private system where companies provide healthcare for their employees would bankrupt us for a very long time."
2. He believes in the ACA's individual mandate. Mr. Bloomberg published an op-ed that mentioned support for the mandate in Bloomberg News — the news outlet subsidiary of his company Bloomberg LP — days before President Donald Trump eliminated the tax penalty associated with the individual mandate in 2017. "This is nothing more than a backdoor tax increase on healthcare for millions of middle-class families that will leave them with less disposable income for savings, investment and spending," Mr. Bloomberg wrote.
3. He is a longtime supporter of public health initiatives. Not only is Mr. Bloomberg partially credited for inspiring the publishing of calorie counts at fast food chains and putting national bans on trans fats and smoking in public places, as Sarah Kliff reported for The Washington Post, he also donated $1.5 billion to the School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins, which is now named after him, according to The Baltimore Sun.
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