Overview

• HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is reportedly preparing to remove all 16 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force members for being too “woke,” although the department says no final decision has been reached.
• A June U.S. Supreme Court ruling upheld the task force’s power to issue binding preventive care recommendations under the Affordable Care Act and confirmed the HHS Secretary’s authority to dismiss panel members at will.
• About 100 million Americans rely on the task force’s A/B graded guidelines for no-cost coverage of services ranging from cancer screenings to HIV-prevention medications.
• The American Medical Association has urged Kennedy to retain the existing panel, calling its experts critical to maintaining evidence-based preventive care guidance.
• Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee have launched an investigation into Kennedy’s earlier firing of CDC vaccine advisers, citing concerns over conflicts of interest and pseudoscience.