Kennedy's move to cancel preventive health panel meeting raises alarm
That's why anxiety is growing after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. abruptly postponed a meeting this week with the highly influential United States Preventive Services Task Force, a group of 16 independent volunteers that advise the agency about preventative health services and screenings, including mammograms, HIV prevention medications, recommending support for new moms to breastfeed and lifestyle interventions for heart disease. Health insurance plans are required to cover the task force's recommendations under the Affordable Care Act.
The meeting, scheduled for July 10, was postponed without explanation.
In an emailed statement, Andrew Nixon, an HHS spokesperson, declined to say why the meeting was canceled or whether it would be rescheduled. He did not respond to a follow-up request for comment.
An HHS notice sent Monday afternoon to task force members said the agency 'looks forward to engaging with the task force to promote the health and well-being of the American people,' according to two people familiar with the task force meeting.
Task force members were not given a reason for the canceled meeting or whether it would be rescheduled, said the two people interviewed, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
Many task force members, however, fear Kennedy's move could signal that he's gearing up to fire them and install new members, as he did with a separate advisory committee, known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the sources said.
Last month, Kennedy fired all 17 members of ACIP — which makes recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines, including for children — and replaced them with eight new members. The new panel includes well-known vaccine critics.
'If you look at how things played out with ACIP, this could be a warning signal,' one of the people said.
The United States Preventive Services Task Force is a lesser known group that was first convened in 1984 during the Reagan administration. It includes physicians, nurses, pediatricians and public health experts. The task force plays an important role because the ACA , more commonly known as Obamacare, mandates that most private insurers provide the services that the group recommends to patients at no cost. The task force makes its recommendations using a grading scale. Under federal law, services that get an A or B grade but must be covered by insurance plans at no cost to patients.
The advisory group has been subject to outrage for its past decisions, including from conservative groups over an 'A' recommendation to cover the HIV prevention pill, known as PrEP. Its controversial decision against routine blood test screening for prostate cancer in 2008 has been linked to rising rates of advanced cases of the disease. The task force currently advises against PSA-screening for older men, saying that men ages 55 to 69 should talk with their doctors about the benefits and harms.
The group usually updates its recommendations every five years after reviewing the latest science on preventive care. For example, in 2021, the task force updated its guidance on heart attack prevention, saying most adults shouldn't take aspirin to prevent a first heart attack or stroke. Other recommendations from the task force include that all women begin breast cancer screening every other year starting at the age of 40, down from age 50. It also recommended that children and teens age 8 and up get screened for anxiety. Both have 'B' recommendations.
The canceled meeting was set to discuss cardiovascular disease and prevention in adults and children, the people said.
'This institution proves vital,' said Arthur Caplan, the head of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City. 'The task force provides one of the few independent evidence-based assessments of what ought to be covered, especially in the area of prevention, which Kennedy has made a priority.'
'Postponing the meeting makes me very nervous,' Caplan added.
As health secretary, Kennedy does have the authority to remove and appoint new members of the committee, said Jen Kates, senior vice president and director of the Global Health & HIV Policy Program at KFF, a health policy research group.
That authority was actually a factor in the Supreme Court's decision last month to uphold the Affordable Care Act provision that requires insurers to cover certain preventive services for free.
The court agreed with the Trump administration that the task force members were 'inferior officers,' Kates said, because their work was directed and supervised by Kennedy.
'The Supreme Court basically ruled that the [health] secretary has the power to appoint members and remove them at will,' Kates said. 'So it basically affirms the argument that the secretary has the ultimate authority over the panel.'
It's unclear which areas of health care Kennedy might target by shaking up the panel.
PrEP, the HIV prevention pill, is 'one to watch,' Kates said, because the Trump administration has already moved to restrict access to the medication in other countries.
Caplan said Kennedy could direct the task force to look into topics he's interested in, such as nutrition or processed foods.
Health groups immediately pushed back when news broke that Kennedy postponed the meeting.
On Wednesday, a letter signed by more than 100 public health groups — including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics — urged U.S. lawmakers to 'defend the task force's integrity.'
The letter was led by AcademyHealth, a group representing health researchers.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
RFK Jr.'s plans for health panel spark "deep concerns" from medical group
The American Medical Association is expressing "deep concern" after a report that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy may be planning to remove all members of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. The task force, also known as the USPSTF, is a panel of independent medical experts whose recommendations help guide insurance companies and doctors' decisions about a range of preventive health measures, like cancer and diabetes screenings as well as HIV and cholesterol drugs. In a letter posted on Sunday, the AMA — the largest association of physicians in the U.S. — addressed Kennedy over a report published Friday in The Wall Street Journal. The WSJ story cited sources familiar with the matter as saying Kennedy plans to dismiss the task force members because he views them as too "woke." "USPSTF plays a critical, non-partisan role in guiding physicians' efforts to prevent disease and improve the health of patients by helping to ensure access to evidence-based clinical preventive services," the AMA's letter said. "As such, we urge you to retain the previously appointed members of the USPSTF and commit to the long-standing process of regular meetings to ensure their important work can continue without interruption." Doctors also have expressed concerns about the potential changes. Infectious disease physician Dr. Shelley Kon shared she's "deeply alarmed" at the reported plans. "The current members are volunteer experts in their field, vetted for conflicts of interest. As a physician, I rely on their expertise and recommendations when discussing preventive care with my patients in the clinic," Kon said in an emailed statement, adding she's especially concerned about the potential impact to safe and effective medication to prevent HIV. "We have to insist that our guidelines are based on science, evidence-based medicine, and shared decision-making — not politics. Our nation's health depends on it," she said. Dr. Thomas Lew, an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine and attending physician of hospital medicine at Stanford Health Care Tri-Valley, had similar concerns about preventative care. "This will greatly damage all the work we've done in preventative care, making people sicker, and driving up costs and premiums," he said. "To put it mildly, this is extremely concerning — and doing the opposite of making America healthy." In a statement to CBS News Friday, an HHS spokesperson said, "No final decision has been made on how the USPSTF can better support HHS' mandate to Make America Healthy Again." The task force was created more than 40 years ago, but its work took on added significance after passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. The law requires health insurers and group health plans to provide preventive services that are recommended by the task force without imposing co-pays, deductibles or other cost-sharing charges on patients. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the structure of the task force, but ruled that its members are "inferior officers" that can be "removable at will" by the HHS secretary. As the case played out, nonprofit organizations warned the Supreme Court that eliminating cost-sharing for services like breast cancer screenings or HIV-prevention medications would dissuade patients from seeking medical care. Last month, Kennedy fired all 17 members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practice, also known as ACIP, a separate government panel of that makes vaccine recommendations. He later named eight new advisers, including several allies he has worked with closely over the years and some members with a history as vaccine critics. Kennedy has also shared big plans to shake up medical journals in the country. The health secretary told CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook he wants to create new journals and even stop the publication of NIH-funded research in traditional journals. "We need to replicate studies, we need to publish raw data. We need to get away from the traditional journals, which are controlled by the pharmaceutical industry, and create our own journals, which we're going to do," Kennedy said. In response to Kennedy's claim that the pharmaceutical industry controls traditional journals, Dr. Eric Rubin, editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, told LaPook, "that's incorrect." Read the AMA's full letter below: AMA Letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. by on Scribd John Oliver: The 60 Minutes Interview Finding the plane used for Argentina's dictatorship-era "death flights" | 60 Minutes Immigration agent told 18-year-old U.S. citizen "you got no rights here" during arrest Solve the daily Crossword


Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
The Bulletin July 29, 2025
The rundown: Launched in early 2025, the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative, led by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., aims to combat childhood chronic disease through food policy reforms. Why it matters: While early signs suggest U.S. obesity may be plateauing, experts credit GLP‑1 weight-loss drugs like Ozempic—not MAHA—for the trend. Critics warn the administration risks taking credit for changes driven by pharmaceutical breakthroughs, not policy. MAHA's efforts, such as banning food dyes and urging soda recipe changes, lack regulatory force and may distract from structural reforms. Simultaneously, federal cuts to health programs undercut its goals. Read more in-depth coverage: Ozempic Could Change Births in America TL/DR: "The intention of what RFK Jr. wants in this area is good," said Dr. Robert Klitzman, professor of psychiatry and director of the bioethics program at Columbia University. What happens now? Experts say meaningful change requires balancing prevention with treatment and worry that misattributing success could undermine long-term public health strategy. Deeper reading America's Obesity Epidemic Is Finally Easing. Will MAHA Take Credit?


Politico
an hour ago
- Politico
Kennedy's plan to ‘fix' vaccine injury compensation
With help from Carmen Paun Driving the Day WHAT IS VICP? Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took to the social media platform X on Monday — as well as conservative activist Charlie Kirk's show — to promote his plan to 'fix' the system that HHS uses to compensate people injured by vaccines. The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has long been a target of Kennedy's ire, and now, he plans major changes to it. I spoke with POLITICO's Lauren Gardner, who covers the program closely, about how it operates and what we know so far about Kennedy's plans. Here's our conversation, edited for length and clarity. Why was the VICP created and how does it work? Congress created the VICP in 1986 after a series of lawsuits against vaccine makers prompted many of them to pull out of the market. Lawmakers worked with companies, public health advocates and parents who said their children were vaccine-injured to establish a no-fault alternative to the traditional tort system. Under the program, drugmakers' liability is limited, and compensation from an industry-funded tax is available with a lower burden of proof. The intention was to reduce the uncertainty for everyone involved and ensure the stability of the domestic supply of childhood vaccines. To be considered for compensation, a petitioner must file a claim generally within three years of the injury's onset. If the person's injury is listed on a table of injuries presumed to be caused by a given vaccine during a certain timeframe, it's typically easier for them to win compensation; otherwise, they must show their injury was 'more likely than not' caused by the immunization. Kennedy has repeatedly critiqued the program. What does he say is the issue? Some of the secretary's problems with the program are shared by public health experts and, unsurprisingly, vaccine injury lawyers who say the process has become more adversarial in recent years and can take many years to resolve. On the latter point, legal experts point to the law's limit on the number of 'special masters' — essentially judges who consider these cases — at the vaccine court as something Kennedy can't address without Congress. However, Kennedy also made several false or misleading claims Monday, including stating that 'the act has changed' so that the vaccine court is the 'exclusive remedy' for families who might prefer to sue drugmakers in state court. They can do that — as he should know, given his work as an injury lawyer outside of the program — but they have to exhaust their claim at the VICP first. What details do we have about how Kennedy wants to 'fix' VICP? Kennedy didn't say anything new about his plans in Monday's interview. So far, we know he wants to increase the statute of limitations and to somehow compensate people injured by Covid-19 vaccines via the VICP; they currently fall under a separate program that's been widely panned as ineffective. Kennedy specifically referenced a 1995 change to the vaccine injury table's definition of encephalopathy, a broad term for brain dysfunction, that he said 'made it so there's no way you can prove' it was caused by a vaccine. He called the program a 'heartless system that is designed to deny vaccine injury and to deny compensation to people who badly need it, and we are about to fix all that.' He also namechecked Attorney General Pam Bondi as someone who's working with him on this, so since the Justice Department works with HHS to administer the VICP, we could see changes come from that side of Washington, too. WELCOME TO TUESDAY PULSE. Glad to be back in your inbox after taking some time off last week. What are you watching this week before the Senate heads out? Send your tips, scoops and feedback to khooper@ and sgardner@ and follow along @kelhoops and @sophie_gardnerj. AROUND THE AGENCIES PREMIUM RISES — Medicare drug plan premiums are expected to rise next year, according to the 2026 preliminary rate information for Medicare's prescription drug program released by CMS. The agency is projecting the average base premium will be $38.99, a slight increase from 2025's average base premium of $36.78, POLITICO's Robert King reports. CMS said it worked with insurers to blunt larger premium hikes from plans. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the rate release. 'Following these negotiations, CMS approved some revised bids and, for the first time, rejected standalone [prescription drug plan] bids that failed to address concerns regarding significant year-over-year premium increases,' the agency said in a release. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act included several major changes to Part D, chief among them a $2,000 annual cap on out-of-pocket drug costs. CMS was concerned that Medicare Part D plans would raise premiums to compensate for the changes. Key context: Last year, the agency sought to blunt the premium impact through a $5 billion program that's expected to end after 2027. It provided insurers who signed with an additional $15 per member per month. Insurers will still receive extra money, but only $10. It will also increase the limit on a plan's total Part D monthly premium from $35 to $50. CMS said the changes will result in approximately $3.6 billion in additional Medicare payments for 2026, a 42 percent reduction compared to 2025 costs. GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS IN DRUG-USE SURVEY — The percentage of teenagers who seriously considered suicide declined between 2021 and 2024, Carmen reports. That's according to the Annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which reflects 2024 data, that HHS's Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, published Monday. The good news: The percentage of teens who made a suicide plan over the past year dropped from 6.2 percent in 2021 to 4.6 percent in 2024, according to the survey, which relies on self-reported data. And the percentage of teens who attempted suicide decreased from 3.6 percent in 2021 to 2.7 percent in 2024. The use of certain drugs also declined in teenagers and adults, with reported prescription opioid misuse lowering from 3 percent in 2021 to 2.6 percent in 2024. The bad news: The percentage of people ages 12 and older who reported having a drug use disorder in the past year increased from 8.7 percent in 2021 to 9.8 percent in 2024. The use of marijuana increased from 19 percent in 2021 to just over 22 percent last year. So did the use of hallucinogens, also known as psychedelics, with 3.6 percent reporting using them last year compared with 2.7 percent in 2021. Why it matters: In response to the country's mental health and drug use crises that worsened during the pandemic, federal officials and lawmakers have made efforts to regulate social media use and expand access to substance use disorder treatment. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who's in long-term recovery from past opioid use, has promoted the ban of cellphone use in schools and healthier food to improve children and teens' wellbeing. HHS LAUNCHES HEP C PILOT — SAMHSA has put $100 million into a pilot program focusing on hepatitis C in people with a substance use disorder, a serious mental illness or both, Carmen reports. State and community-based organizations are among the entities that can apply for funding from the program, which 'is designed to support communities severely affected by homelessness and to gain insights on effective ways to identify patients, complete treatment, cure infections, and reduce' hepatitis C reinfection, HHS said in a statement Monday. HHS hailed the pilot program as 'a significant accomplishment in President Trump's agenda to Make America Healthy Again … This upfront investment is a common-sense and scientifically driven initiative projected to both save lives and save community health care costs in the long run.' The CDC estimates that between 2.4 million and 4 million people in the U.S. had hepatitis C between 2017 and 2020. The disease is an inflammation of the liver, caused mainly by a viral infection that can progress to severe liver disease or liver cancer if left untreated, according to the World Health Organization. Oral medication can treat and cure the disease if taken for eight to 12 weeks, but greater access to treatment is needed to achieve disease elimination, according to former National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, who has advocated for the cause as former President Joe Biden's science adviser. WHAT WE'RE READING POLITICO's Maya Kaufman reports that the Justice Department has launched an antitrust probe into New York-Presbyterian, one of the nation's largest hospitals. STAT's Anil Oza reports on a new analysis that outlines what the Trump administration's proposed cuts to the NIH could mean long-term.