Gutting US health agency will allow for private sector takeover, experts warn [View all]

Source: The Guardian

Sat 29 Mar 2025 08.00 EDT


Massive job cuts planned for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will pave the way for takeover of crucial services by the private sector, imperiling the US in future health emergencies, health experts and Democratic politicians warn. Health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr announced the department would layoff 20,000 workers from its roughly 82,000-person workforce on Thursday, or nearly a quarter of the department’s headcount.

“People out there need to understand the impact on them personally,” said Patty Murray, a senator for Washington state and the party’s ranking member of the Senate appropriations committee. “Preventing pandemics costs something. Failing to prevent them costs a lot more. All of this is making us less prepared for the next public health emergency.”

HHS is an enormous branch of the federal government, overseeing a $1.7tn budget. The department includes agencies that are household names – among them the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Those branches respectively protect Americans from outbreaks, helm the world’s largest publicly funded biomedical and behavioral research agency, provide health insurance to 137 million older and low-income Americans through Medicare and Medicaid, and approve and regulate the nation’s medical devices, drugs and foods. All would see cuts in Kennedy’s proposed reorganization, in some cases compounding layoffs initiated by the unofficial “department of government efficiency” helmed by billionaire Trump-ally Elon Musk.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/29/health-department-private-sector-takeover