How Trump’s Second Term Could Shape the Future of Health in America

The landscape of health care in America is poised to undergo a monumental shift—and not for the better—once Donald Trump takes office for his second, non-consecutive presidential term.

Trump has promised to shake things up by appointing loyal supporters to prominent administration positions. Perhaps his most controversial decision thus far has been the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services, which governs a wide array of other agencies related to public health, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institutes of Health. Kennedy has already indicated that he will alter the country’s public health infrastructure, having pushed in recent weeks for the end of water fluoridation and the possible removal of some vaccines from the market.

Other candidates nominated by Trump for important public health positions are also concerning. Former TV show host and surgeon Mehmet Oz, who Trump picked to run Medicare, has a long history of promoting nutritional supplements and other treatments that have little evidence for their claimed benefits. And much like RFK, Trump’s proposed choice to run the CDC, physician and former House Representative Dave Weldon, has also endorsed a long-discredited link between vaccination and autism spectrum disorder. Perhaps scarier than any single administrative pick is the Republican party’s stated agenda, which has included limiting women’s access to reproductive healthcare and preventing reforms aimed at lowering ever-expanding drug prices.

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