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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. itestifies on President Donald Trump’s budget request before the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, in Washington, DC, on April 16, 2026.Olivier Douliery\/Abaca\/Sipa USA\/AP<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tGet your news from a source that\u2019s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.<\/a><\/p>\n Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he would overhaul a preventive medicine team that risks making screenings more difficult.<\/p>\n \u201c[The US Preventive Services Task Force<\/a>] has been lackadaisical and negligent for 20 years,\u201d Kennedy told members of the House Ways and Means Committee<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have, for the first time, transparency.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n As my colleagues Anna Merlan<\/a>, Julia M\u00e9traux<\/a>, and Kiera Butler<\/a> have reported, Kennedy\u2019s transformation of the HHS has been extensive and relies on rejectingdecades of scientific, evidence-based research on health.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kennedy said on Thursday he would appoint new members with \u201ca clear mission\u201d but did not elaborate on whether he would remove any current members. Five of the 16 panel members\u2019 terms expired last December, but Kennedy has not filled those roles.\u00a0<\/p>\n If the new task force stops recommendations on a certain preventive drug or screening, insurance companies would no longer be required to cover it under the Affordable Care Act, effectively taking millions of Americans off vital health interventions.\u00a0<\/p>\n This may be the clearest sign that Kennedy will continue to dismantle the health panel. In July 2025, the Wall Street Journal reported<\/a> that the health secretary planned to dismiss all 16 members because they were too \u201cwoke.\u201d Due to the HHS\u2019 cancellations, the panel has not met in a year<\/a>; it usually meets three times annually. The members also did not submit<\/a> their congressionally-mandated report for 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n