Decoding the HHS Reorganization
In his latest column, KFF President and CEO Drew Altman examines the implications of Secretary Kennedy’s reorganization of HHS and why it’s a sharp break from past efforts to reorganize the department.
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In his latest column, KFF President and CEO Drew Altman examines the implications of Secretary Kennedy’s reorganization of HHS and why it’s a sharp break from past efforts to reorganize the department.
As the Trump administration works to dissolve the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), a new KFF poll finds that two-thirds (67%) of the public believe these actions will increase illness and death in low-income countries, and a similar majority (62%) believe it will result in more humanitarian crises around the world.
This poll finds most of the public believe the cutbacks at USAID will lead to increases in illness and death in low-income countries. Nearly half say it will reduce the U.S. budget. Most of the public also overestimates the share of the federal budget that is spent on foreign aid, and when informed it is about 1% of the federal budget, the share who want to reduce spending drops.
In a new column, KFF President and CEO Drew Altman discusses how recent KFF focus groups with Trump voters on Medicaid show that voters were not expecting big Medicaid cuts from the Trump administration and worry about what the impact of potential cuts in federal Medicaid spending will be. As Drew writes: “Trump built a populist base of working people formerly in the Democratic party.” When details of specific Medicaid cuts emerge, tension could develop between “Trump and Republicans on the Hill who want to cut entitlement programs that now serve a significant part of Trump’s base.”
As Senate hearings begin for President Trump’s health nominees, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the latest KFF Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust shows a decline in public trust for government health agencies like the CDC, FDA, and local public health officials. The poll reveals growing skepticism about vaccines and school vaccine requirements, especially among Republicans and parents, while misinformation about vaccine safety persists. Despite low concern about the H5N1 bird flu, the U.S. public is divided on how prepared they believe the government is for future health crises or pandemic.
As President Trump begins his second term, the public’s trust in health information from key health agencies has fallen over the past 18 months, continuing a decline that began during the COVID-19 pandemic, finds the new KFF Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust.
With the incoming Trump administration and Republican-led Congress looking to ways to reduce federal spending, this Poll finds that the Medicare and Medicaid programs remain broadly popular, and more people favor more spending on those programs than less spending. Among potential actions on health, the public sees price transparency and limiting chemicals in food as top priorities. Few say so about cuts to Medicaid and restrictions on abortion.
In this column, KFF President and CEO Drew Altman explores the state of consumer protections in health care and explains why, even with consumer frustration clear, Congress is unlikely to pursue major new health insurance protections but there could be some modest steps.
In this column, KFF President and CEO Drew Altman examines the data and history around adding work requirements to Medicaid and why the administrative burdens it imposes may offset any savings even for states that ideologically favor such an approach.
In this column, KFF President and CEO Drew Altman analyzes the serious access and affordability challenges facing people with mental health problems and suggests the issue could be one of a few candidates for bipartisan action in the next Congress.
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