President-Elect Taps RFK Jr. as HHS Nominee

President-elect Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to serve as secretary of Health and Human Services, a department with 80,000 employees running over 100 programs. HHS and its agencies oversee disease surveillance, drug approvals, food safety, ACA, Medicare and Medicaid, and conduct research on diseases. 

Kennedy’s nomination has displeased some public health experts with his vaccine skepticism and unorthodox views on medicine. 

• RFK Jr. has repeatedly blamed corporations for the poor health of the American population and promises he will “free the agencies from the smothering cloud of corporate capture.”

• He has also vowed to dismiss employees within agencies like the NIH and shift its focus away from infectious disease research towards obesity, mental illness, and autism which he also blames on corporations, particularly drug and food companies.

Focus on pharmaceutical companies will increase. Kennedy has previously suggested barring pharmaceutical companies from advertising and eliminating fees paid to FDA to review drugs. 

• He has also supported efforts to cap drug prices, including the “most favored nation” model that Trump attempted to put into place during his first administration. 

• While President-elect Trump has since backed away from this model, which requires Medicare to pay no more for a drug than the lowest price other nations pay, if approved by the Senate, RFK Jr. could recirculate these proposals.

What’s next: The Senate confirmation process may face challenges due to Kennedy's unconventional views and the slim Republican majority. However, the President could potentially bypass Senate confirmation by utilizing the U.S. Constitution's provision for making recess appointments.

The bottom line: With promises of overhauling how public health is approached, employers may find themselves needing to update workplace policies around health and vaccines while navigating discrepancies between the advice of public health experts and HHS policy.