The Trump administration has signaled it may take control of a health advisory board, potentially upending four decades of precedent that has allowed the panel to operate independently.
Attorneys for the administration told the Supreme Court last Monday that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has the power to reject decisions or even fire members of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a key panel at HHS that says what can count as “preventive care.” Additionally, efforts to shrink the agency have eliminated the subagency where the task force was housed, giving Kennedy a more direct line to the panel’s work.
The Department of Justice is arguing that the recommendations of the panel — which include recommending that people get services like cancer and diabetes screenings, testing for sexually transmitted infections and medication to prevent HIV — must be covered by insurance on the grounds that the HHS secretary has full authority to block those recommendations.