Trump 2.0 health picks signal a changed agenda
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When President-elect Trump took office the first time, his choices to lead agencies like HHS, CMS and the FDA sent clear signals to the health care industry that he'd enact a pretty orthodox GOP health agenda.
Why it matters: Trump's nominations for top health care positions so far signal a starkly different — and likely unpredictable — agenda for his second term.
- This time around, he's started with a group of nominees — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Mehmet Oz — new to Trumpworld and unfamiliar with government bureaucracy. Their views and resumes are nearly the exact opposite of their predecessors.
- The remaining wild card is whom Trump chooses to staff the agencies around those people, assuming they get confirmed by the Senate, which could make a huge difference given their government inexperience.
Flashback: Trump's first HHS secretary was former Rep. Tom Price, who chaired multiple influential House committees during his tenure, including the Republican Policy Committee.
- After Price resigned due to a scandal around his use of private jets, Trump appointed Alex Azar to lead the agency. Azar was formerly an Eli Lilly executive and deputy HHS secretary.
- Price was criticized by Democrats for both his ethics and his policy views, especially relevant as he'd be helming the agency during Republicans' attempt to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Azar was criticized for being too friendly with the pharmaceutical industry.
Those complaints are a far cry from the objections to Kennedy's nomination, which include his history of criticizing vaccines and his conspiratorial ideas about Big Pharma's role in America's chronic health issues.
- And Kennedy's focus on upending the health care agencies and addressing rising rates of chronic disease in America has just about nothing in common with the first Trump administration's focus on insurance reforms.
- Kennedy's interest in cracking down on America's food supply also wasn't a priority for the first Trump administration.
