Special Interests Driving America’s Agenda
According to the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr., the United States is the sickest nation on earth. If the dysfunction on Capitol Hill and within the White House are any indication, he might be right.
The Senate Healthcare Committee grilled Kennedy for more than three hours last week about the health of the nation and the future of vaccine policy. The conversation again demonstrated that our government is protecting special interests, including their own, more than the American people. Kennedy promises to remove politics from the process.
“That’s my job,” Kennedy told the committee.
Despite the drama, grandstanding and rhetoric at the Senate meeting, health outcomes for people of all ages in the United States are poor compared to other high-income nations. Despite spending the most on healthcare, the U.S. ranked last overall in a 2024 Commonwealth Fund report on healthcare system performance.
According to reports from The Commonwealth Fund and the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. lags behind other wealthy nations in several critical health areas:
- Life expectancy: The U.S. has the lowest life expectancy at birth among high-income countries, with Americans dying younger and experiencing higher rates of disease.
- Avoidable deaths: The U.S. has the highest rates of preventable and treatable deaths. Causes of death that are unusually high in the U.S. include drug overdoses and gun violence.
- Infant and maternal mortality: The U.S. has the highest rates of infant and maternal mortality among its peer nations.
- Autism: After decades of surging autism rates in the U.S., there still is no state or national screening programs to track incidence rates in hopes of turning the tide. In 2015, the Centers For Disease Control (CDC) reported that 1 in 45 children in the United States had autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which includes Asperger’s Syndrome (a milder version of the disease). Despite the lack of any formal testing program, the CDC just updated those statistics to 1 in 31 children. Boys are five times more likely to be autistic than girls. It’s clearly driven largely by neurotoxins in food, water, air and soil. Some states are worse than others. Some countries are worse than others. Are we really supposed to believe that the ongoing surge in autism is related to pregnant mothers taking Tylenol? To Kennedy’s credit, he also points to unnamed environmental factors. Let’s hope that he looks at the undeniable exposure to neurotoxins in our food and water supplies.
- Chronic disease: Americans have the highest burden of chronic disease and the highest obesity rate among high-income countries. Americans also report higher rates of conditions such as diabetes and heart disease compared to their counterparts.
- COVID-19 deaths: The U.S. experienced a higher rate of excess deaths related to the COVID-19 pandemic than other wealthy nations.
Unfortunately, Kennedy and every other politician has an agenda that they are trying to promote, while posturing, exaggerating and outright lying about the problems and the solutions. Right now, we need MAHA to stand for honesty, integrity and consistency in government. The truth matters. Science matters. Democracy matters. Conflicts of interest matter.
Experts point to several factors within the U.S. healthcare system and society that contribute to its poor health outcomes:
- No universal coverage: The U.S. is the only high-income nation without universal health coverage, leaving a significant portion of the population uninsured or underinsured. This creates financial barriers that prevent people from seeking timely and adequate care.
- Health equity issues: The U.S. has deep-seated inequities in healthcare, with significant disparities in access and treatment based on income, race, and ethnicity. Racial discrimination and an inadequate social safety net lead to poorer health outcomes for Black, Indigenous, and Latino populations, as well as low-income and rural communities. The U.S. ranks lowest in health equity.
- High costs: The U.S. spends far more per capita on healthcare than any other high-income country, but these high costs do not translate into better health. High out-of-pocket costs, expensive procedures, and administrative burdens deter many Americans from getting care. Americans have the worst access to care, particularly due to costs, according to the report.
- Inadequate primary care: The U.S. has an insufficient supply of primary care providers and a less-developed primary care system compared to other countries. This leads to less frequent check-ups and less effective chronic disease management.
- Societal factors: Beyond the healthcare system, social factors like gun violence, the opioid crisis, and unhealthy diets characterized by processed foods contribute significantly to the U.S. health disadvantage.
Meanwhile, The Make America Healthy Again Commission yesterday released the Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy, a plan that lacked details, goals or timelines. The report listed more than 120 initiatives to reverse policies that it blames for America’s childhood chronic disease epidemic.
The assessment identified four potential drivers behind the rise in childhood chronic disease that present the best opportunities for progress:
Poor Diet: The American diet has shifted dramatically toward highly processed foods, leading to nutrient depletion, increased caloric intake, and exposure to potentially harmful or unhealthy additives. Over 60 percent of children’s calories now come from highly processed foods, contributing to obesity, diabetes, and other chronic conditions.
Chemical Exposure: Children are exposed to an increasing number of synthetic chemicals, including PFAS, which have been linked to developmental issues, chronic disease and terminal disease. The current regulatory framework should be continually evaluated to ensure that chemicals and other exposures do not interact to pose a threat to the health of our children.
Lack of Physical Activity and Chronic Stress: American children are experiencing unprecedented levels of inactivity, screen use, sleep deprivation, and chronic stress. These factors significantly contribute to the rise in chronic diseases and mental health challenges.
Overmedicalization: There is a concerning trend of overprescribing medications to children, often driven by conflicts of interest in medical research, regulation, and practice. This has led to unnecessary treatments and long-term health risks.
Unfortunately, I didn’t see any specific references to the following threats to American citizens, including our children:
- Neurodegenerative Disease. Neurodegenerative disease is the fastest-growing cause of death in the world. Despite no national screening program, and the suppression of thousands of diagnoses, we know that prion disease is escalating around the world. Misinformation and disinformation are fueling the flames. The medical term for prion disease is transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE). TSEs are always fatal. There is no cure. As the name implies, TSEs are transmissible. We know TSEs by the clinical terms of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, mad cow disease and chronic wasting disease. Why is government and industry suppressing the truth and failing to protect pathways?
- Mental Health: According to a new report, the United States has an all-time high depression rate. With adequate screening and access to care, I’m sure that we would find that the rate is even higher. How about anxiety and paranoia. Deep cuts to Medicaid will only exacerbate the problem.
- Soldier Suicides: Veterans are at 58 percent higher risk of suicide than those who haven’t served. We lost 6,407 veterans to suicide in 2022. More than 6,000 soldiers have taken their lives every year since the year 2000.
- PFAS: Thanks to lies, collusion and corruption, 99 percent of the people in the world have harmful forever chemicals (PFAS, PFOAS and many more) in their bodies. The chemicals are still in production and widespread use today.
Although the Senate Committee meeting gave the illusion of bipartisan support for Making America Healthy Again, a heated conversation about vaccines just scratches the surface. Unfortunately, we need a more comprehensive vision and agenda to really promote the health of all citizens and not just industries and corporations.
It should have been a session about sanity and insanity. Yes, there is a mental health crisis in America and it seems to be trickling down from the top.
Senator Bernie Sanders summed it up quite well.
“Republicans and Democrats alike – everyone in this room – have received money from pharmaceutical PACs. Does that mean that we all are corrupt?”
The Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) annual budget is a multi-trillion dollar federal outlay, with the FY2025 President’s Budget Request proposing outlays of approximately $1.802 trillion, an increase of $132 billion from the FY2024 estimate.
HHS is the largest category of all federal spending. It consistently consumes at least 20 percent of all federal spending.
I need to spend more time reviewing the details of the plan to Make Our Children Healthy Again, but I see potential for good. I also see a platform that can be interpreted and twisted, as usual, to serve special interests instead of American citizens. Let’s hope for the best and brace ourselves for the worst as the fine print becomes available in this plan and the one ahead for the entire American population, not just children. Let’s hope that Kennedy can steer the HHS ship in the right direction fast. As usual, the devil is in the details. Failure isn’t an option.
