WASHINGTON — Hours after vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., was confirmed as health and human services secretary, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to establish a Make America Healthy Again commission.
Last September, after ending his presidential campaign to back Trump, Kennedy launched the MAHA Super Pac to advance his health policy agenda
The executive order calls for Kennedy to chair the new commission, which will include the secretaries of multiple federal agencies, including the Departments of Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, Education and Veterans Affairs, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Management and Budget, the National Economic Council, the Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration.
Thursday’s executive order cites Americans’ relatively lower life expectancy compared with other developed countries and high rates of chronic disease and mental illness. It said 90% of the country’s $4.5 trillion in annual healthcare outlays are for chronic and mental health conditions.
“Americans of all ages are becoming sicker, beset by illnesses that our medical system is not addressing effectively,” the executive order states. “These trends harm us, our economy and our security.”
The commission’s first efforts will be directed toward what the executive order calls “the childhood chronic disease crisis.” It orders a study of contributing causes, including the American diet, absorption of toxic material, medical treatment, life and environmental factors, government factors, food production techniques and corporate influence.
Within 100 days, the commission is ordered to submit a Make Our Children Healthy Again Assessment to identify the most significant childhood chronic diseases and what is causing them. Within 180 days, the commission is required to submit a strategy to address the problem.
Arguing the U.S. healthcare system should promote health instead of managing disease, the order calls for “fresh thinking on nutrition, physical activity, healthy lifestyles, over-reliance on medication and treatments, the effects of new technological habits, environmental impacts and food and drug quality and safety.”
It calls for federally funded health research and the National Institutes of Health to prioritize “gold-standard research on the root causes of why Americans are getting sick.” It also calls for federal agencies to work with farmers to ensure that food grown in the United States is more healthy, abundant and affordable compared with other parts of the world.
In addition, it requires agencies to expand the availability of health treatments and for health insurance companies to provide benefits that help prevent disease and support healthier lifestyles.
