The US Department of Health and Human Services, led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is planning a significant downsizing of its operations. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, the department intends to eliminate 10,000 positions and close regional offices, in addition to reorganizing the health agencies as a whole.
The planned job cuts will be accompanied by the departure of around 10,000 employees who have chosen to leave the department since the inauguration of US President Donald Trump. In total, a quarter of the workforce is expected to be reduced, with the number of employees decreasing to 62,000. Secretary Kennedy shared the news on social media, stating, “We will eliminate a whole alphabet soup of bureaus and at the same time preserve their core functions by bringing them together in a new organization called ‘Administration for a Healthy America’ or AHA. This restructuring will improve the health of the entire nation – to make America healthy again.”
The White House had previously announced in February the establishment of a commission for health promotion, named “Make America Healthy Again”. The campaign aims to introduce “new perspectives” on the handling of nutrition, exercise and over-reliance on medication in the US, in order to combat the high number of chronic diseases. In the US, the Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for a range of tasks, including vaccines, pharmaceuticals, medical research and public health, as well as government health programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, which primarily assist the elderly, low-income individuals and those with disabilities.