RFK Jr. confirmed as HHS secretary

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a outstanding vaccine critic who President Donald Trump directed to “go wild” on healthcare, was confirmed Thursday by the U.S. Senate because the nation’s high Health official. 

The 52-48 vote to substantiate Kennedy was practically alongside occasion strains. Each Republican senator voted for Kennedy besides Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who joined with the 47 senators caucusing with the Democrats in opposition. 

Sen. Invoice Cassidy, R-La., was a key vote to safe Kennedy’s affirmation to steer the Division of Health and Human Providers. Cassidy, a doctor, had admitted to “struggling” with Kennedy’s historical past of selling vaccine misinformation throughout a affirmation listening to final week. However finally Cassidy voted to advance the nomination and ensure him Thursday, after Kennedy promised to “work inside” present vaccine approval and security methods. 

As HHS secretary, Kennedy will run one of many federal government’s largest agencies, which oversees the Meals and Drug Administration, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention and the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Providers. 

Below the banner of the “Make America Wholesome Once more” motion, Kennedy has promised to sort out the nation’s rising incidence of continual illness and take goal at over-processed meals that contribute to weight problems. 

He additionally mentioned he would observe President Donald Trump’s lead on abortion coverage, regardless of his prior political place supporting a lady’s proper to decide on. His assist on this entrance might sign additional scrutiny of mifepristone, the primary treatment in a two-drug routine that can be utilized to finish a being pregnant by way of 10 weeks of gestation. Sometimes called the abortion capsule, mifepristone can also be used to care for girls who’ve miscarriages. 

Kennedy’s plans for different main healthcare packages he’ll now oversee, like Medicare and Medicaid, are unclear, nevertheless. Throughout affirmation hearings, he made errors about how Medicaid was funded and fumbled Medicare fundamentals. 

RFK Jr. unlikely to take lead on Medicare, Medicaid coverage

Kennedy seemingly gained’t play an enormous function when IT involves Medicare and Medicaid, given his deal with continual illness and meals and his restricted data of the packages, specialists advised Healthcare Dive. As HHS secretary, he’ll oversee the CMS, which offers insurance coverage to more than 160 million Americans by way of Medicare, Medicaid, the Kids’s Health Insurance coverage Program and the Inexpensive Care Act marketplaces.

“I’ve had the distinct impression that he may have no affect on Medicare and Medicaid,” mentioned Paul Ginsburg, senior scholar on the USC Schaeffer Middle for Health Coverage and Economics. “The White Home will likely be making these selections, and Republicans in Congress will likely be enjoying a big function as nicely.”

Nonetheless, the packages — and different insurance coverage and cost insurance policies — might come to the forefront as congressional Republicans work to chop federal spending and protect tax cuts. 

Medicaid is one goal for cuts, both by way of Health-care-policy/2025/02/05/medicaid-work-rules-likelier-for-budget-bill”>work necessities that would cut back eligibility for the safety-net insurance coverage program or by way of caps on federal funding despatched to states, specialists mentioned. This week, Home Republicans launched a price range blueprint that orders the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees healthcare points, to seek out $880 billion in financial savings.

However reducing Medicaid could also be difficult politically, Ginsburg mentioned. This system is mostly in style, and hospitals would seemingly balk at cuts that enhance the uninsured inhabitants and hit their backside strains. 

Many hospitals are nonetheless recovering financially from the COVID-19 pandemic. Rural amenities, which extra generally function in Republican-led states, have lengthy struggled to keep away from shuttering companies or closing down altogether. 

One other vital coverage query for the Trump administration and lawmakers is whether or not extra beneficiant monetary help for individuals who purchase protection by way of the ACA exchanges ought to proceed. 

Republicans argue the improved premium subsidies, that are set to run out on the finish of this 12 months, are expensive and create alternatives for fraud. Nevertheless, if the subsidies are allowed to lapse, premiums might rise and tens of millions extra People might turn into uninsured, in accordance with the Congressional Finances Workplace.