WSJ: Kennedy expected to dismiss expert panel on preventive care
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US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to remove the expert advisers who make up a federal panel on preventive health care, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
The future of the US Preventive Services Task Force has been in doubt since HHS called off this month's meeting of the nonpolitical advisory group.
'No final decision has been made on how the USPSTF can better support HHS' mandate to Make America Healthy Again,' HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon told CNN on Friday.
The 16-member task force was established in 1984 and provides recommendations about preventive services, such as screenings for cancer and various disorders and counseling, that help make Americans aware of illnesses and conditions earlier, when they can be easier and less expensive to treat. The Affordable Care Act mandates that those services are provided without charge to patients.
Kennedy's control over the task force was recently solidified by the US Supreme Court. Last month, in a case challenging a popular provision of the Affordable Care Act, the justices upheld the constitutionality of the task force, which recommends preventive health care services that insurers must cover at no cost. Both the Biden and Trump administrations argued that the task force was properly set up — and therefore, its recommendations should be upheld — because the Health and Human Services secretary was able to name and fire its members.
Since taking over at HHS, Kennedy has pushed to reshape the health agencies and expunge them of what he has called longtime health-care industry influence on policies. Last month, he dismissed the 17-member vaccine advisory committee for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and, two days later, named eight new picks. Several of the new members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices have questioned vaccine safety; two have testified in court against vaccine manufacturers.
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