Crackpot vs. The Machine: Did RFK Jr. Will It Take Attacks On America’s Health?

Donald Trump’s decision to nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. leading the Department of Health and Human Services is a daunting choice, given Kennedy’s controversial medical views and history of making misleading and often inaccurate statements about health issues. To make matters worse, the president-elect chose to surround RFK Jr. with a series of conspiracy theorists and equally inept people.

However, one of the news about Kennedy’s plans as HHS secretary gives liberals a glimmer of hope. Reports indicate that Kennedy is considering efforts to change the Medicare payment system. Currently, Medicare’s coding system favors surgery and specialty care over primary care and prevention. Private insurers often base compensation levels from this formula, too.

As Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research notes, “This is a big part of the story of why we pay our doctors so much more than doctors in other countries.” other riches.”

Calley Means, Kennedy’s top adviser, recently wrote in X that the Medicare payment codes “implement a system that represents sick Americans and profits.” Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Super PAC, which seeks to run his campaign, says it aims to support “policies that promote preventive health care.”

The US health care system is riddled with policy scams that pile up costs for patients and taxpayers, generate huge profits for corporate interests or a privileged few, and produce negative outcomes. especially for health. There are many such frauds that HHS, and the agencies it oversees, could lead to — if Republican policy hands don’t get their way, and if Trump’s health care administration, including RFK Jr., undisturbed by pseudoscientific science.

So far, conservative think tanks and Trump allies have telegraphed plans to advance private health interests.

In recent years, conservatives have developed two competing policy programs. One was the infamous 2025 project, led by the Heritage Foundation. One was at the America First Policy Center, a think tank assisted by top Trump allies such as Linda McMahon and Brooke Rollins, both of whom were appointed to serve in the presidential candidate’s Cabinet. .

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Both Project 2025 and AFPI plan to fully privatize Medicare, the government’s health insurance program for seniors and people with disabilities, and to do so quickly. The 2025 plan includes a plan to “make Medicare Advantage an enrollment option” for newly eligible beneficiaries. AFPI says it will “allow Medicare to enroll new beneficiaries in Medicare Advantage instead of traditional Medicare, with clear information about the two options for all new enrollees.”

Most Americans who qualify for Medicare are already in private Medicare Advantage plans — a change that was accelerated by the first Trump administration — but Project 2025 and AFPI’s plans would mean an early end to the program. traditional Medicare, and its basic premise: seniors can go to any doctor or provider they choose.

Their proposals would be a great help for health insurers – who generate huge profits and increasing portions of their income from the Medicare Advantage program – and strengthen the control of company over the American health system.

Health insurers and their regulators are publicly expressing their excitement about the incoming Trump administration. After Trump’s victory last month, the Better Medicare Alliance, an advocacy group for Medicare Advantage plans, said in a statement: “President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance understand that protecting Medicare is what’s next.” before seniors, including Medicare.”

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And insurers are even more excited by Trump’s selection of TV personality Mehmet Oz to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, an agency overseen by HHS. Oz once proposed putting “every non-Medicaid American” in private Medicare Advantage plans — an idea he dubbed “Medicare Advantage for All.” Oz also created Medicare Advantage plans in his program, the Dr. The Oz Show.

The Better Medicare Alliance said that Oz “recognizes the importance of Medicare Advantage,” adding: “We look forward to working with Dr. Oz to protect and strengthen this important program for seniors.”

Republicans are also pushing to stop the Biden administration’s program to have Medicare pay the negotiated prices of some drugs for the first time. Project 2025 said the Biden administration’s “government price controls will reduce access to medicines and reduce patient access to new medicines,” and added: “This ‘dialogue’ program should be canceled.”

A majority of House Republican lawmakers have signed a budget plan this year that similarly commits to repealing the Democrats’ Medicare drug program, calling it a “socialist price control that will reduce access to life-saving drugs.”

Almost all other countries negotiate drug prices. Congress’s decision to prevent Medicare from negotiating drug prices two decades ago is a big reason why Americans pay so much more for the same treatment than people in other wealthy countries, even The US government supports the research and development of almost all drugs that are approved for use. sales.

When he first ran for president, Trump pledged to negotiate drug prices “like crazy,” but failed to follow through.

In September, after endorsing Trump, Kennedy bluntly urged him to “play Americans internationally at the expense of drugs.”

“Today in Germany, Ozempic costs less than a tenth of what it does in the US because while Berlin is negotiating prices for the benefit of all Germans, Washington will not do the same,” Kennedy wrote in the op -ed. “Legislators should lower drug prices so companies don’t charge Americans more than Europeans pay.”

There, Kennedy realizes a fundamental truth that Republican politicians and policymakers ignore.

On the other hand, he and several other incoming Trump health officials tend to spread junk science about pharmaceutical products. It’s easy to see Kennedy and co. wasting time and fighting political battles that don’t matter – or that could endanger society.

Kennedy falsely claimed that vaccines could be linked to autism and suggested that antidepressants could be to blame for mass shootings. He called the Covid-19 vaccines “the deadliest vaccine ever made,” and said they could be used to microchip people to track them.

There is no evidence for such claims. Indeed, the Covid vaccines – which rely on government-backed technology, and have benefited from support from Trump’s Operation Warp Speed ​​- have been a huge success.

However, even though the US government has invested heavily in Covid vaccines, America has ended up paying more for these products than other countries. Someone without insurance can pay more than $200 for the jab.

This is a real pharma scam. It’s one that the next administration could eliminate, if Trump and RFK Jr. they want.

Will they choose that important – or fake, battle instead?