Policy Blog

This week delivered a marathon of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s first major congressional testimony, during which he confirmed an overhaul of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), an expansion of prior authorization into traditional Medicare, and plans to hire 12,000 new HHS employees. President Trump separately nominated former deputy surgeon general Erica Schwartz to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a pick seen as a departure from earlier vaccine-skeptic signaling. Nebraska prepares to become the first state to enforce Medicaid work requirements on May 1, just as a Senate minority report documented that drugmakers raised prices on hundreds of medications despite signing voluntary most-favored-nation deals with the administration.