Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies throughout his affirmation listening to on the Senate Finance Committee on Jan. 29. The total Senate voted to verify him as Secretary of the Division of Well being and Human Companies on Thursday.
Chen Mengtong/VCG through Getty Photographs
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Chen Mengtong/VCG through Getty Photographs
Regardless of thousands and thousands of {dollars} spent by teams against his nomination, the Senate voted to put in Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the helm of the Division of Well being and Human Companies.
Kennedy confronted opposition from the left for his many years of espousing conspiracy theories on vaccines and from the fitting for his previous help of abortion rights. For a number of weeks, it was unsure whether or not he had sufficient senators backing him to get by way of. Yesterday, Democratic senators made speeches on the ground previous midnight in protest. However on Thursday morning, he had the votes to be confirmed. The vote was 52 to 48. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the previous Republican majority chief and a polio survivor, joined Democrats to vote towards Kennedy.
There are numerous questions on what occurs subsequent for Medicare, vaccines and medical analysis. Listed below are a information to 5 key points to look at as Kennedy takes management on the big well being company within the coming weeks:
1. Congress may minimize Medicaid and (possibly) Medicare
Kennedy hasn’t spoken a lot about the way forward for Medicaid or Medicare and in his hearings fumbled fundamental questions on how they’re arrange. However he now oversees each in style packages that collectively insure about 140 million People.
As quickly because the 119th Congress was sworn in, Republicans started to speak about methods to chop spending in Medicaid. That may be a public well being program for low-income folks that’s paid for partly by the federal authorities and partly by states. Traditionally it has been highly regarded with the general public — a KFF survey from final 12 months discovered 71% of People wished this system to proceed principally as it’s.
Amid talks of cuts, President Trump declared that his crew would “love and cherish” Medicare, Medicaid and Social Safety, and that any cuts could be associated to waste or abuse and would not have an effect on beneficiaries.
However cuts properly past waste and abuse might be coming anyway to liberate funds for Trump’s priorities like tax cuts and border safety. Conservative teams and Republican lawmakers have lengthy argued that Medicaid has grown too large — in the course of the pandemic, enrollment grew to 80 million folks. The proposal from Home Republicans would search to search out $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid. States would possible minimize advantages and restrict eligibility. Medicare is also in for cuts of some sort as properly.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, the guts surgeon, TV persona and former candidate for Senate in Pennsylvania, is Trump’s decide to guide the Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Companies, which is a part of HHS. A date for Oz’s affirmation listening to is just not but set.
2. Way forward for vaccine coverage after complicated alerts in hearings
As senators voted to verify Kennedy, a measles outbreak continued in Texas. As Marfa Public Radio reported, 9 have been hospitalized in an outbreak of not less than 24 measles circumstances in Gaines County, which has one of many lowest vaccination charges within the nation. All circumstances are in individuals who have been unvaccinated, most are youngsters.
Kennedy is without doubt one of the nation’s most outstanding vaccine opponents. Throughout affirmation hearings, he repeatedly claimed he was not anti-vaccine or towards the vaccine schedule, and he mentioned he supported sure vaccines, together with polio. He wouldn’t settle for, nevertheless, that the hyperlink between autism and vaccines had been totally debunked.
Kennedy gained affirmation on the energy of his guarantees to Sen. Invoice Cassidy, R-La., a doctor and the chair of the Senate’s well being committee. These guarantees included that he wouldn’t intervene with present vaccine coverage and that Cassidy would have oversight over a few of his selections at HHS.
The committee’s former chair, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wa., mentioned in a press convention this week that these guarantees weren’t credible. “Republicans are selecting to fake like it’s in any means plausible that RFK Jr. will not use his new energy to do precisely the factor he has been attempting to do for many years: undermine vaccines,” she mentioned.
There’s a lot Kennedy may do on vaccines by way of appointing advisors, directing NIH analysis, and altering public well being messaging concerning the significance of vaccines. Public well being and medical advocates will likely be watching carefully to see what Kennedy does on this enviornment.
3. Will HHS get the DOGE remedy?
DOGE, the Elon Musk-led effort to unilaterally dismantle companies by way of furloughs, firings and cease work orders, may properly be coming to HHS.
Proper now, HHS has a price range of practically $2 trillion and a employees of 90,000 folks. An enormous a part of that price range is Medicare and Medicaid, the general public well being packages for seniors and low-income folks respectively. DOGE staffers have been on the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies for the previous a number of weeks, CMS officers advised NPR.
Different well being companies which are a part of HHS embody the Meals and Drug Administration, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, and the Nationwide Institutes of Well being.
Venture 2025, the blueprint from the Heritage Basis that has thus far aligned carefully with DOGE’s actions, proposes dramatic modifications to HHS, together with splitting CDC into two companies and eliminating Head Begin. Kennedy hasn’t spoken a lot about his plans for the companies, besides to say that he would hearth 600 NIH researchers and instruct the company to redirect sources from infectious illness and in direction of investigating the foundation causes of power ailments.
4. Science info and analysis in disarray
Already, with out Congressional cuts or DOGE, actions by the Trump Administration have triggered tectonic modifications to science in America.
A number of govt orders about “ideology” triggered federal well being companies to delete scores of databases and internet pages that included forbidden phrases like “gender,” though seemingly unrelated web sites on tuberculosis and pure disasters went darkish as properly. A federal choose has since instructed the companies to restore these pages, however their sudden disappearance of sources — together with these utilized by docs routinely when treating sufferers — has alarmed many in public well being and medication. It is particularly unclear how analysis that entails teams that can not be talked about, like transgender folks, can now proceed.
Biomedical analysis — lengthy a supply of bipartisan help and nationwide delight — has not been spared both. NIH’s grants to analysis establishments have already been focused for dramatic cuts, one other transfer that’s presently paused by a federal choose. A number of Republican senators, together with Cassidy, Susan Collins of Maine and Katie Britt of Alabama, have spoken out about how damaging this blanket coverage may very well be to universities with giant analysis establishments. Collins wrote in a press release that Kennedy promised her he would “re-examine” the coverage when confirmed.
5. How can “MAHA” translate to coverage
Kennedy spoke in his affirmation hearings about how he understood the well being companies from a singular viewpoint — as a science outsider who had spent many years submitting lawsuits towards a lot of them. He asserts that the companies have misplaced their means and that’s mirrored in the truth that People have poor life expectancy and lots of power ailments.
He hasn’t but laid out how he can use coverage and his energy overseeing the companies to “put the well being of America again on observe.” He spoke rather a lot in the course of the hearings about meals packages outdoors of HHS’ jurisdiction, suggesting possibly he’ll search to work with the Division of Agriculture to collaborate on packages like SNAP.
There are highly effective industries that might push again towards a few of his objectives like Large Meals and Large Pharma, as NPR has reported. And a few public well being researchers query how sensible such an overhaul will likely be in a Republican-controlled, regulation-unfriendly federal authorities.
