Scoop: RFK Jr. postpones Obamacare coverage panel meeting
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HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee Health Subcommittee. Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s office has postponed a meeting of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force scheduled for Thursday that was due to discuss healthy diet, physical activity and other steps to prevent cardiovascular disease, sources familiar told Axios.
Why it matters: The expert panel makes recommendations for services that health insurers must cover fully under the Affordable Care Act.
- The Supreme Court last month upheld the structure of the task force in a case surrounding coverage of HIV prevention drugs, ruling that its members are accountable to the HHS secretary, who has the power to remove and replace members at will.
- Public health experts have raised the possibility that Kennedy could change the task force's composition or fire its members, as he did with a federal vaccine advisory panel early last month.
Zoom in: The Health and Human Services Immediate Office of the Secretary sent a letter on Monday to task force members and partners announcing that the July task force meeting is postponed and that HHS looks forward to engaging with the task force to promote health and well-being in the future, a source familiar told Axios.
- An HHS spokesperson confirmed that the task force will not be meeting on July 10. HHS did not respond to questions about reasons for the postponement and when the meeting would be rescheduled.
- The task force meets throughout the year, but members were slated to attend one of three annual in-person meetings on Thursday.
- The panel's recommendations give about 150 million people with private health coverage access to no-cost cancer screenings, counseling and other services.
Between the lines: Conservatives have started urging Kennedy to replace the current task force members.
- The American Conservative published an article on Wednesday that accuses the task force of using its "authority to launder left-wing ideological orthodoxy into its preventive care recommendations."
- "It's past time for Kennedy to heal the wounds woke deep-state appointees have inflicted on HHS and start from scratch with an objective, non-ideological USPSTF," the opinion article says.
The other side: The task force makes recommendations based on rigorous evidence-based science — not ideology, said Aaron Carroll, CEO of AcademyHealth, a professional group for health services researchers.
- "They make actual recommendations for what clinicians and others should do to care for patients in ways that improve prevention," Carroll said. "Dismantling or politicizing the process is only going to move [Americans' health] backward."
- There isn't a substitute for the task force, should Kennedy change it in a way that erodes the trust of public health experts, he added.
- "Some other group may recommend that you need mammograms, but they won't necessarily be covered unless that recommendation comes from the USPSTF," Carroll said.
The story has been updated with additional reporting.
