RFK Jr. to Oust Advisory Panel on Cancer Screenings, HIV Prevention Drugs
The task force determines which preventive services insurers must cover at no cost to patients
Health Secretary Kennedy plans to remove all members of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.
Kennedy considers the panel too “woke,” following White House targeting of DEI initiatives in different sectors, sources say.
The plan follows a Supreme Court case and separate criticism that the task force embedded left-wing ideology.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is planning to remove all the members of an advisory panel that determines what cancer screenings and other preventive health measures insurers must cover, people familiar with the matter said.
Kennedy plans to dismiss all 16 panel members of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force because he views them as too “woke,” the people said.
The White House has made a priority of targeting initiatives that promote diversity equity and inclusion, or DEI, in everything from artificial intelligence to health research grants.
The task force has advised the federal government on preventive health matters since 1984. The Affordable Care Act in 2010 gave it the power to determine which screenings, counseling and preventive medications most insurers are required to cover at no cost to patients. The group, made up of volunteers with medical expertise who are vetted for conflicts of interest, combs through scientific evidence to determine which interventions are proven to work.
The Supreme Court decided a case in June that originally focused on a task-force recommendation to cover certain HIV-prevention drugs. The employer plaintiffs had successfully argued previously that requiring them to cover such drugs for employees violated their religious rights. The group also argued that the task-force members weren’t properly appointed. The high court ruled that the task- force appointments were constitutional, while highlighting that the Health and Human Services Secretary has the authority to remove the members of the panel at will.
A recent essay in The American Conservative magazine called for the removal of the task-force members, arguing that it had embedded “left-wing ideological orthodoxy” in all of its efforts. The essay pointed to the task force highlighting racial discrimination when discussing risk factors for anxiety in older children and teenagers, as well as the task force’s use of terms such as “pregnant persons.” The task force mentioned the “lasting psychological impact and stigma of enslaved Black women being forced to act as wet nurses” in an April publication on breast-feeding, the essay noted.
HHS didn’t offer details on the secretary’s plans for, or views on, the task force.
“The Secretary looks forward to working with the USPSTF to improve public health,” a spokeswoman for the secretary said, referring to the task force.
The secretary’s office this month abruptly postponed the task force’s July meeting, alarming some Democrats and public health leaders.
“In no world should experts be replaced with unqualified anti-science cronies of RFK Jr. who will make preventive healthcare more expensive and harder to get over baseless conspiracy theories or debunked disinformation,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.), who sits on the Senate’s health committee.
Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, in June removed all the members of a separate advisory committee on immunizations. New members appointed by Kennedy pushed forward several of the secretary’s priorities later that month, announcing a new examination of the full schedule of vaccines children receive and recommending flu shots that don’t contain the preservative thimerosal, often used in multi-dose flu-vaccine vials.
Kennedy raised questions on whether Human Immunodeficiency Virus is the sole cause of AIDS in a 2021 book, saying “I take no side in this dispute.” Scientists have for decades considered it a proven fact that HIV causes AIDS.