The prominent US medical group has spoken in strong criticism of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s alleged plan to overhaul a crucial federal health advisory panel that recommends which preventive services such as cancer screenings should be covered by insurance.
In a letter to Kennedy, the American Medical Association (AMA) communicated “deep concern” after Wall Street Journal reports indicated the Health and Human Services Secretary is planning to remake the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), which has been around for over 40 years. According to sources quoted by the newspaper, Kennedy sees the panel as too controlled by liberal ideology, or “too woke.”
The USPSTF consists of 16 members who are appointed by HHS secretaries and serve four-year volunteer terms. The panel advises on preventive services like cancer screening, HIV prevention, osteoporosis screenings, and mental health screenings. The public and private insurers, under the Affordable Care Act, are required to cover services that the task force recommends, at no cost-sharing.
AMA. defended in its Sunday letter the credibility and worth of the task force. “USPSTF has a critical non-partisan function of informing physicians’ efforts to prevent disease and enhance patients’ health,” it said. “We urge you to keep the current members on and continue the regular meeting process so their work will not be interrupted.
Reflecting Kennedy’s own public health campaign, the letter further stated: “USPSTF members are nationally respected evidence-based medicine experts. Their unpaid volunteer service is consistent with the vision to ‘Make America Healthy Again.'”
The Department of Health and Human Services declined to confirm the reported revamp. Spokesman Andrew Nixon explained that “no decision has been finalized on how the USPSTF can assist HHS better to Make America Healthy Again.”
Kennedy is weighing a shake-up following an essay in The American Conservative claiming the task force is politically laced and “packed with Biden administration appointees.” The column warned that allowing such influence by the panel over insurers could translate into undue influence over medical practice for “ideological capture.”.
More than 100 medical groups, such as the AMA, wrote a letter to Congress jointly in response, calling on lawmakers to protect the integrity of the task force. The letter threatened that politicization of the panel’s work outside of politics would undermine public trust and slow access to affordable care.
The move is reminiscent of another controversial decision Kennedy made earlier this month, when he ousted all 17 members of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine advisory committee. That action precipitated angry criticism from health professionals, with American Public Health Association executive director Georges Benjamin denouncing the action as “a coup” and “harmful to national health.”
As controversy intensifies, the future of the USPSTF is in doubt but physicians are making it clear they are opposed to political interference.
