Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is reportedly planning to remove all the members of an influential health task force that helps determine what preventative care services insurers must cover for free, after removing all members of a vaccine advisory board last month.
Kennedy wants to clean house at U.S. Preventative Services Task Force next because he believes its 16 members have become too “woke,” The Wall Street Journal reported.
Under 2010’s Affordable Care Act, the task force makes evidence-based, public recommendations on a variety of treatments, ranging HIV prevention to prenatal care to mental health, that insurers must cover at no cost to patients.
Health and Human Services has said the secretary hasn’t made a final decision regarding the task force. The Independent has contacted the agency for comment.
Kennedy’s reported dissatisfaction with the group comes after the American Conservative magazine accused the task force of being a “festering corner of woke bureaucracy” earlier this month.
“The task force is packed with Biden administration appointees devoted to the ideological capture of medicine,” the author argued, pointing to “sinister” recent task force actions committing to removing racial inequities in health care and using more inclusive language around gender.
Earlier this month, a July meeting of the task force was postponed.
At the time, a letter from over 100 health organizations warned about the politicization of the task force’s work.
“The loss of trustworthiness in the rigorous and nonpartisan work of the Task Force would devastate patients, hospital systems, and payers as misinformation creates barriers to accessing lifesaving and cost-effective care,” the letter reads.
“When something works well and helps inform doctors about how to take care of their patients, to postpone the task force’s work just doesn’t make any sense,” Dr. Bobby Mukkamala, president of the American Medical Association, told The New York Times after the meeting was postponed. “This flies in the face of what is good for the country’s health.”
In June, the Supreme Court upheld the task force’s ability to recommend free coverage for preventative services, in the face of a challenge from individuals and businesses objecting to the body’s recommendation regarding HIV prevention medication.
Concern over the fate of the task force comes after Kennedy removed all the members of a vaccine advisory board, replacing them with some members who share the secretary’s vaccine skepticism.
