The news: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expected to remove all 16 members of a task force that advises the government on preventive health services due to the committee being perceived as too “woke,” according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Zooming in: The US Preventive Services Task Force’s recommendations inform health insurers’ coverage determinations for services such as cancer screenings and primary care doctors’ decisions on how to best care for their patients.

The group is made up of volunteers with expertise in preventive medicine and primary care, and terms are typically staggered to ensure that all members aren’t selected by the same administration. The task force has over 100 guidelines, using a letter grade system to assess the strength of their recommendation based on available evidence and the balance of benefits and harms of a particular service.

Zooming out: The decision, which has not been finalized, would be the second time in as many months that Kennedy has fired every member of a key health advisory panel.

• In June, Kennedy removed all 17 members of an advisory panel that makes vaccine recommendations to the CDC.
• He soon replaced them with 8 new members, including some anti-vaccine advocates.

Yes, and: The medical community is already sounding the alarm over the possibility of the task force being ousted. Leading medical associations recently sued Kennedy and other top health officials over revamping COVID-19 vaccine recommendations.

• The largest such organization, the American Medical Association, is urging Kennedy to keep the previously appointed members in place.
• The AMA also noted the importance of the task force’s work, citing that insurers are legally required to cover the committee’s recommended services without cost sharing.
• One doctor told NPR that he uses the task force’s guidelines for just about every patient he sees, while another noted that many primary care physicians consider them their most trusted source.

Our take: A complete overhaul of another important panel of medical experts could reduce patient access to critical preventive care while confusing doctors about which guidelines to rely on—especially if Kennedy chooses replacements based on politics and like-minded beliefs rather than health expertise.

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