HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said during a House Committee on Ways and Means hearing April 16 that he will reform the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.
Mr. Kennedy told lawmakers that the committee, which makes recommendations about clinical preventive services, has been “lackadaisical and negligent for 20 years.”
Here are four takeaways from the hearing:
1. Task force overhaul. Mr. Kennedy said the task force will have more frequent meetings and transparency. The comments come a month after HHS postponed the task force’s planned meeting for the third time since March 2025. The volunteer panel of national experts typically meets three times per year.
The American Medical Association raised concerns in July that Mr. Kennedy, who replaced all members of a federal vaccine committee in June, reportedly planned to remove all members of the task force.
2. New task force members. Mr. Kennedy said he is bringing on “new members who have a clear vision” to the task force, which is composed of 16 experts. It remains unclear whether any current members will be removed or whether new members will be added alongside them.
Task force members serve four-year terms, but the Supreme Court ruled in June that the HHS secretary has the authority to appoint and remove members.
The task force decides which medical services are preventive and must be covered at no cost by insurers. If the task force stops recommending a particular medication or screening, insurance companies would no longer be required to cover it, The New York Times reported April 16.
3. Measles response. When pressed on his view on measles outbreaks and vaccines, Mr. Kennedy said the U.S. is “better at preventing measles than in any country in the world.”
As of April 9, the U.S. has had 1,714 reported measles cases in 2026, according to CDC data. There were 2,287 total cases reported in the U.S. in 2025, marking the highest two-year total in more than 30 years.
A federal judge on March 16 blocked Mr. Kennedy’s efforts to restructure U.S. childhood immunization policy and overhaul the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee.
Mr. Kennedy did not directly answer whether President Donald Trump approved his decision to end the CDC’s public awareness campaign promoting the flu vaccine, which was first reported in February 2025.
4. Rural healthcare and looming retirements. Rep. Ron Estes, R-Kan., raised concerns about looming retirements among healthcare providers, particularly specialists, and the potential effects on rural communities. He asked how Mr. Kennedy is working to ensure access to specialty care in rural areas.
“I think one of the most important things that we’ve done to address that very, very grave problem is the site neutrality rules, which we have recently finalized and now will end the disparity between what’s paid to rural providers and what’s paid to urban providers, and hopefully dampen the appetite for consolidations, which are destroying rural economies and rural healthcare, and allow them to get a living wage, which they don’t have right now,” Mr. Kennedy said.
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