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6 healthcare positions of RFK Jr.


Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nominated to guide HHS underneath President Donald Trump’s second time period, brings a variety of healthcare positions that would instantly and not directly affect public well being, prescribed drugs and well being programs. 

If Mr. Kennedy is confirmed because the secretary of HHS, he can be the twenty sixth chief of the company. Given HHS’ huge finances of $1.8 trillion in 2024, Mr. Kennedy’s management might form important coverage instructions, useful resource allocation and extra. He would oversee crucial companies just like the CDC, FDA, CMS and NIH, shaping insurance policies that impression thousands and thousands of Individuals.

Under are key features of his healthcare views and potential implications.

1. Mr. Kennedy has prioritized addressing continual illness, which accounts for over $1 trillion in annual U.S. healthcare prices. He has said that President-elect Trump seeks “measurable impacts” to fight the continual illness epidemic inside two years — a purpose that has drawn consideration from healthcare leaders, a few of whom have praised its ambition whereas noting potential challenges.

Mr. Kennedy recognized continual illness as a key precedence earlier than his nomination to guide HHS. “I will urge President Trump on day one to do the identical factor they did in COVID, which is to declare a nationwide emergency, however not for infectious illness, however for continual illness,” Mr. Kennedy mentioned in a Sept. 26 interview, about one month after he dropped out of the presidential race. 

His imaginative and prescient extends past healthcare supply to deal with broader contributors to continual illness. Mr. Kennedy has criticized the affect of the pharmaceutical and meals industries, linking points like weight problems and diabetes to ultra-processed meals, federal subsidies and dietary tips. He has known as for reforms concentrating on meals components, pesticides and environmental well being dangers, alongside overhauls of companies just like the CDC and FDA.

Well being programs might discover some frequent floor in Mr. Kennedy’s give attention to prevention and early intervention to scale back continual illness burdens, which might align with a few of their efforts to deal with social determinants of well being. Nonetheless, specialists, together with former CDC Director Tom Frieden, MD, warning towards oversimplification. “There are some issues that RFK Jr. will get proper,” Dr. Frieden instructed NPR. “We do have a continual illness disaster on this nation, however we have to keep away from simplistic options and stick to the science.”

2. He is known as for an finish to direct-to-consumer promoting for prescribed drugs. Mr. Kennedy has criticized the promoting relationships between pharmaceutical corporations and information retailers, arguing that pharmaceutical promoting influences editorial content material and public discourse past its meant objective of selling merchandise. When his marketing campaign was energetic in early 2024, Mr. Kennedy mentioned if elected he would problem an govt order on his first day in workplace to ban pharmaceutical promoting on tv. 

Direct-to-consumer promoting of prescribed drugs surged after the FDA eased restrictions in 1997 and totaled almost $10 billion in 2016. Proponents argue it educates customers and empowers affected person involvement, whereas critics warn it might misinform sufferers, drive inappropriate prescribing and inflate healthcare prices. Issues additionally embrace selling expensive brand-name medicine over cheaper options, straining patient-physician relationships.

3. He has expressed curiosity in redirecting Medicare spending towards selling wholesome behaviors fairly than protecting sure prescribed drugs. Mr. Kennedy has been a vocal opponent of Medicare and Medicaid funding for GLP-1 medicine used for weight reduction, arguing that these applications ought to as an alternative prioritize protecting gymnasium memberships and more healthy meals choices for enrollees. 

“For half the worth of Ozempic, we might buy regeneratively raised, natural meals for each American, three meals a day and a gymnasium membership, for each overweight American,” Mr. Kennedy mentioned throughout a Congressional roundtable in September, as reported by the Related Press

The Biden administration just lately proposed broader protection of GLP-1 and weight reduction medicine for Individuals with weight problems, a transfer that would put Mr. Kennedy in a reactive place if he secures affirmation to guide HHS. 

4. He’s contemplating modifications to the Medicare doctor price schedule. Mr. Kennedy and his advisers are contemplating an overhaul of Medicare’s cost method, 4 nameless sources instructed The Washington Publish in November. The transfer might mark a bid to shift the well being system’s incentives towards major care and prevention. 

The Medicare doctor price schedule was adopted in 1992, establishing a fancy system of administrative pricing primarily based on the useful resource inputs utilized in producing doctor companies. It influences not solely Medicare funds, but in addition non-public insurance coverage cost programs, which frequently mirror Medicare’s methodologies. 

Sources instructed The Publish that discussions in regards to the price schedule are of their early phases and have concerned a plan to assessment the hundreds of billing codes that decide how a lot physicians receives a commission for performing procedures and companies. These codes are integral to figuring out reimbursement charges and have confronted criticism for traditionally favoring procedural and specialty care over major care companies. An overhaul might tackle these disparities and doubtlessly reshape the economics of medical apply throughout the nation.

5. He has raised controversial and broadly challenged claims about vaccine security for almost 20 years. Mr. Kennedy’s suspicion of vaccines dates again to a minimum of 2005, when he revealed an article known as “Lethal Immunity” in uncommon publications for the subject: Rolling Stone journal (print) and Salon (digital). The article claimed that thimerosal, eradicated in routine childhood vaccines in 2001, prompted autism. The article was amended and corrected a number of instances earlier than, years later, Salon introduced in 2011 that it was retracting “Lethal Immunity” in entirety. An evidence of that call and the corrections made to Mr. Kennedy’s article are detailed by Salon right here. 

Extra just lately, Mr. Kennedy mentioned in a 2023 podcast interview that, “There isn’t any vaccine that’s protected and efficient.” The nonprofit Mr. Kennedy was aligned with for almost a decade, Youngsters’s Well being Protection, has been a vocal critic of COVID-19 vaccines and public well being mandates, with its claims regularly challenged by public well being specialists. The group has filed dozens of federal and state lawsuits since 2020, many difficult vaccines and public well being mandates. Mr. Kennedy has been on depart from the group as its founder, chairman and chief litigation counsel since he introduced his plans to run for president in April 2023. 

When described as anti-vaccine, Mr. Kennedy has pushed again. As an alternative, he argues that he needs to enhance the science of vaccine security. “We’re not going to take vaccines away from anyone,” he instructed NPR in November. “We’re going to be sure that Individuals have good info. Proper now the science on vaccine security significantly has enormous deficits in it, and we’re going to ensure these scientific research are carried out and that folks could make knowledgeable selections about their vaccinations and their kids’s vaccinations.”

6. He helps abortion rights as much as the purpose of fetal viability, after which he favors restrictions. Mr. Kennedy believes abortion must be authorized up to a degree he describes as when the fetus turns into viable outdoors the womb, after which he helps restrictions. Mr. Kennedy clarified this place in a video launched in June 2024, although he didn’t specify a precise variety of weeks for viability. He acknowledged that his views on abortion have advanced over time as he continued to discover the difficulty. In Might 2024, he had expressed assist for a girl’s proper to decide on an abortion at any stage of being pregnant, together with full time period.

Mr. Kennedy has additionally pointed to the significance of addressing financial elements in discussions about abortion and reproductive well being. “We must be taking a look at why there are such a lot of abortions within the first place,” he mentioned, emphasizing the necessity to perceive the monetary challenges and financial pressures that contribute to abortion charges amongst people and households.

Mr. Kennedy launched a plan whereas operating for president known as “Extra Decisions, Extra Life” that known as for a sponsored daycare initiative aimed toward making childcare extra accessible. He mentioned common childcare has the capability so as to add $1 trillion to the U.S. GDP. “And since economics is a significant driver of abortion, this coverage will do extra to decrease abortion charges than any coercive measure ever might,” the web site for the plan states. 

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