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US Health Secretary Kennedy Adds Eight New Members to Key Preventive Health Panel
The new panel includes specialists in medicine and health finance, and its recommendations help decide which preventive services insurers must cover.
On Thursday, Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. named eight new members to the Preventive Services Task Force, an influential panel that assesses evidence for preventive medical services covered by health insurance plans.
Kennedy previously criticized the task force as too "woke," prompting him to dismiss several members, including the former chair and vice chairs, which left at least eight vacancies within the body this year.
The new appointments reflect a shift toward specialized experts in oncology, gastroenterology, and clinical nutrition, replacing the panel's historical reliance on generalists to avoid prioritizing one area of medicine over another.
Under the Affordable Care Act, the task force's recommendations mandate that health insurance plans cover preventive treatments such as colorectal cancer screenings for adults aged 45 to 75 and HIV prevention drugs.
The task force faces significant backlog, including an unsubmitted annual report for 2025, with uncertainty persisting about when the reformed panel will convene after not meeting for over a year.