AMA urges Kennedy to preserve US preventive care taskforce
Potential changes to the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) could affect which preventive measures, including cancer screenings, are covered by insurers, prompting the American Medical Association (AMA) to convey “deep concern” to Robert F Kennedy Jr after a Wall Street Journal report said he plans an overhaul because he regards the panel as too “woke”.
During his second term, Donald Trump has frequently criticised organizations and government departments he considers too liberal, and his administration has overseen cuts and job losses across the US government; sources cited by the Journal said Kennedy is considering changes to the USPSTF, which guides coverage of preventive measures.
The USPSTF is a 16-member panel appointed by health and human services secretaries to four-year terms, and under the Affordable Care Act public and private insurance companies must cover services the task force recommends without cost sharing; beyond cancer screenings, it also issues recommendations on osteoporosis, intimate partner violence, HIV prevention, and depression in children.
In a letter on Sunday, the AMA defended the panel’s “critical, non-partisan role” and urged Kennedy to retain previously appointed members and maintain regular meetings “without disruption”, adding that members are nationally recognized experts who volunteer to “help reduce disease and improve the health of all Americans”.
Figures cited in the record include a 40-year-old task force, a 16-member panel with four-year terms, support from 104 health organizations in a separate letter to congressional health committees, and the June removal of all 17 members of a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine advisory panel.
Chronology and sourcing are as follows: a Wall Street Journal report on Friday, the AMA’s letter on Sunday, an American Conservative essay earlier this month, and a MedPage Today statement from a Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson, Andrew Nixon, who said, “No final decision has been made on how the USPSTF can better support HHS’s mandate to Make America Healthy Again.”
After the American Conservative described the task force as advancing “leftwing ideological orthodoxy” and alleged it was “packed with Biden administration appointees”, 104 health organizations, including the AMA, urged congressional health committees to “protect the integrity” of the USPSTF and warned that losing trust in its nonpartisan work would harm patients, hospitals, and payers; in June, Kennedy removed all 17 members of a CDC vaccine expert panel after alleging conflicts of interest in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, a move criticised by health experts as American Public Health Association executive director Georges Benjamin called the ouster “a coup” and said, “It’s not how democracies work. It’s not good for the health of the nation.”
