Joel McElvain is Senior Legal Advisor at Democracy Forward. Joel served until January 2025 with the Office of General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As an acting Deputy General Counsel, he was responsible for legal advice on all matters involving the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, including the Medicare and Medicaid statutes and the Affordable Care Act. He also served as a Special Counsel in OGC with responsibility for coordinating legal advice concerning the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program established by the Inflation Reduction Act. Mr. McElvain previously served as an assistant director in the Federal Programs Branch of the Department of Justice, with responsibility for HHS litigation matters. While at the Department of Justice, he participated in the government’s defense of the Affordable Care Act in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012) and King v. Burwell (2015), and received the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service, the Department’s highest honor. Mr. McElvain is a magna cum laude graduate of the Harvard Law School and a magna cum laude graduate of Williams College.