Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. confirmed as Trump’s well being secretary : Pictures

Regardless of thousands and thousands of {dollars} spent by teams against his nomination, the Senate voted to put in Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the helm of the Division of Well being and Human Companies.

Kennedy confronted opposition from the left for his a long time of espousing conspiracy theories on vaccines and from the proper for his previous assist of abortion rights. For a number of weeks, it was unsure whether or not he had sufficient senators backing him to get via. Yesterday, Democratic senators made speeches on the ground previous midnight in protest. However on Thursday morning, he had the votes to be confirmed. The vote was 52 to 48. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the previous Republican majority chief and a polio survivor, joined Democrats to vote towards Kennedy.

There are lots of questions on what occurs subsequent for Medicare, vaccines and medical analysis. Listed here are a information to 5 key points to observe as Kennedy takes management on the large well being company within the coming weeks:

1. Congress may reduce Medicaid and (perhaps) Medicare

Kennedy hasn’t spoken a lot about the way forward for Medicaid or Medicare and in his hearings fumbled primary questions on how they’re arrange. However he now oversees each well-liked applications that collectively insure about 140 million People.

As quickly because the 119th Congress was sworn in, Republicans started to speak about methods to chop spending in Medicaid. That could be a public well being program for low-income folks that’s paid for partly by the federal authorities and partly by states. Traditionally it has been very talked-about with the general public — a KFF survey from final yr discovered 71% of People needed this system to proceed principally as it’s.

Amid talks of cuts, President Trump declared that his crew would “love and cherish” Medicare, Medicaid and Social Safety, and that any cuts could be associated to waste or abuse and would not have an effect on beneficiaries.

However cuts properly past waste and abuse might be coming anyway to release funds for Trump’s priorities like tax cuts and border safety. Conservative teams and Republican lawmakers have lengthy argued that Medicaid has grown too massive — in the course of the pandemic, enrollment grew to 80 million folks. The proposal from Home Republicans would search to search out $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid. States would seemingly reduce advantages and restrict eligibility. Medicare is also in for cuts of some variety as properly.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, the guts surgeon, TV persona and former candidate for Senate in Pennsylvania, is Trump’s choose to steer the Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Companies, which is a part of HHS. A date for Oz’s affirmation listening to will not be but set.

2. Way forward for vaccine coverage after complicated indicators in hearings

As senators voted to verify Kennedy, a measles outbreak continued in Texas. As Marfa Public Radio reported, 9 have been hospitalized in an outbreak of a minimum of 24 measles instances in Gaines County, which has one of many lowest vaccination charges within the nation. All instances are in individuals who had been unvaccinated, most are kids.

Kennedy is likely one of the nation’s most distinguished vaccine opponents. Throughout affirmation hearings, he repeatedly claimed he was not anti-vaccine or towards the vaccine schedule, and he mentioned he supported sure vaccines, together with polio. He wouldn’t settle for, nonetheless, that the hyperlink between autism and vaccines had been completely debunked.

Kennedy received affirmation on the power of his guarantees to Sen. Invoice Cassidy, R-La., a doctor and the chair of the Senate’s well being committee. These guarantees included that he wouldn’t intervene with present vaccine coverage and that Cassidy would have oversight over a few of his choices at HHS.

The committee’s former chair, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wa., mentioned in a press convention this week that these guarantees weren’t credible. “Republicans are selecting to faux like it’s in any method plausible that RFK Jr. will not use his new energy to do precisely the factor he has been making an attempt to do for many years: undermine vaccines,” she mentioned.

There’s a lot Kennedy may do on vaccines by way of appointing advisors, directing NIH analysis, and altering public well being messaging in regards to the significance of vaccines. Public well being and medical advocates shall be watching intently to see what Kennedy does on this enviornment.

3. Will HHS get the DOGE remedy?

DOGE, the Elon Musk-led effort to unilaterally dismantle businesses via furloughs, firings and cease work orders, may properly be coming to HHS.

Proper now, HHS has a price range of practically $2 trillion and a employees of 90,000 folks. An enormous a part of that price range is Medicare and Medicaid, the general public well being applications for seniors and low-income folks respectively. DOGE staffers have been on the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies for the previous a number of weeks, CMS officers advised NPR.

Different well being businesses which are a part of HHS embrace the Meals and Drug Administration, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, and the Nationwide Institutes of Well being.

Challenge 2025, the blueprint from the Heritage Basis that has thus far aligned intently with DOGE’s actions, proposes dramatic adjustments to HHS, together with splitting CDC into two businesses and eliminating Head Begin. Kennedy hasn’t spoken a lot about his plans for the businesses, besides to say that he would fireplace 600 NIH researchers and instruct the company to redirect assets from infectious illness and in direction of investigating the basis causes of persistent ailments.

4. Science info and analysis in disarray

Already, with out Congressional cuts or DOGE, actions by the Trump Administration have brought on tectonic adjustments to science in America.

A number of govt orders about “ideology” brought on federal well being businesses to delete scores of databases and net pages that included forbidden phrases like “gender,” though seemingly unrelated web sites on tuberculosis and pure disasters went darkish as properly. A federal choose has since instructed the businesses to restore these pages, however their sudden disappearance of assets — together with these utilized by docs routinely when treating sufferers — has alarmed many in public well being and medication. It is particularly unclear how analysis that entails teams that can not be talked about, like transgender folks, can now proceed.

Biomedical analysis — lengthy a supply of bipartisan assist and nationwide satisfaction — has not been spared both. NIH’s grants to analysis establishments have already been focused for dramatic cuts, one other transfer that’s at present paused by a federal choose. A number of Republican senators, together with Cassidy, Susan Collins of Maine and Katie Britt of Alabama, have spoken out about how damaging this blanket coverage could possibly be to universities with massive analysis establishments. Collins wrote in an announcement that Kennedy promised her he would “re-examine” the coverage when confirmed.

5. How can “MAHA” translate to coverage

Kennedy spoke in his affirmation hearings about how he understood the well being businesses from a novel standpoint — as a science outsider who had spent a long time submitting lawsuits towards lots of them. He asserts that the businesses have misplaced their method and that’s mirrored in the truth that People have poor life expectancy and plenty of persistent ailments.

He hasn’t but laid out how he can use coverage and his energy overseeing the businesses to “put the well being of America again on monitor.” He spoke loads in the course of the hearings about meals applications exterior of HHS’ jurisdiction, suggesting perhaps he’ll search to work with the Division of Agriculture to collaborate on applications like SNAP.

There are highly effective industries that might push again towards a few of his objectives like Large Meals and Large Pharma, as NPR has reported. And a few public well being researchers query how real looking such an overhaul shall be in a Republican-controlled, regulation-unfriendly federal authorities.