Last week, almost immediately after Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s swearing-in as secretary of health and human services (HHS), Donald Trump established an interagency commission to follow through on his promise to “Make America Healthy Again.” This holistic approach to solving the country’s chronic disease epidemic is the only way to reverse it.
Carrying the same name as the slogan, the commission’s goal is to focus the country’s ever-expanding health care resources on ending chronic disease, with the ultimate goal of significantly reducing health care spending. The United States spends more on health care than any other wealthy country. According to Statista, annual health expenditures stood at over $4.4 trillion in 2022, and personal health care expenditures equaled $11,197 per resident. Roughly 90 percent of that number goes toward treating chronic disease and mental health problems, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Making this country healthy will require much more than HHS resources alone. According to the executive order, the commission will include representatives from more than a dozen agencies. Some, such as the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and HHS, are obvious considering that one of the greatest contributors to good health is proper diet and nutrition.
Food policy is a shared responsibility of several different agencies. While the USDA regulates farming practices and the quality of the food being produced (for example, USDA might chart the trend of fruits and vegetables becoming less nutritionally dense than they were 50 years ago), the additives and preservatives used by food manufacturers are in the domain of the Food and Drug Administration. And while SNAP (formerly called the Food Stamps Program) is overseen by the USDA, the CDC is responsible for infectious disease research and response and works with state and local health departments to improve food safety. This splintered and rather confusing approach to food policy might be worthy of the commission’s time as well.
However, Trump also included non-health-specific agencies and offices, such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Education, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the Environmental Protection Agency. This demonstrates President Trump’s dedication to a holistic, comprehensive approach to health and his understanding that if we are going to make America healthy and great again, we need to consider that true health is more than merely the absence of disease. Poor health also has much further reaching consequences than pant sizes or even health care costs.
Consider national security. According to a Pentagon study, 77 percent of Americans between the ages of 17 and 24 are ineligible for military service without a waiver because they’re overweight, have drug or alcohol abuse issues, or suffer from other physical or mental health issues. This is a significant barrier to any military’s “readiness and lethality,” as new Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has proclaimed he’s committed to delivering.
As both Trump and RFK Jr. understand, many of America’s broken systems fuel our citizens’ abysmal health. For instance, in addition to frustrating taxpayers and corroding America’s standard of care, a growing Medicaid system has in many cases increased poor health by absolving patients of the medical bills they would otherwise accumulate as a result of their unhealthy habits. The same goes for the pharmaceutical racket, which creates lifetime patients by slapping expensive and side effect-inducing Band-Aids on symptoms rather than healing the underlying problems. Much like DOGE is doing for the country’s fiscal health, the MAHA Commission must evaluate the root causes of illness, not just symptoms.
Humans are not lab rats. We can’t just be studied under a microscope with test tubes and raw data points, although these can be helpful in assessments and pinpointing symptoms. We are complex beings, sometimes operating beyond the levels of human comprehension. Our bodies’ physical, mental, and spiritual wellness are integrated and commune with one another. Laughter is indeed sometimes the best medicine. Often, a mother’s hug can heal what hurts, and chicken soup always soothes the soul.
This is one reason the unprecedented Covid lockdowns were so appalling. Let’s pretend that all the measures taken — social distancing, stay-at-home orders, the closing of public spaces, the restriction of access to beaches and nature, and masking — actually were effective at containing the spread of the virus. (Like I said, let’s pretend.) Those restrictions caused far more damage to many people’s health than the illness. We now have the data to prove that. The rates of depression, alcoholism, and deaths of despair rose to alarming levels. Education and social learning hit rock bottom for children, a catastrophe from which they may never fully recover. Divorce rates spiked. We have seen an unprecedented decline in human health and flourishing since 2020.
President Trump is wasting no time. He charged the commission with producing an assessment, within 100 days, that summarizes what is known and unknown about the childhood chronic disease crisis. Within 180 days, he expects the commission to create a strategy, based on the assessment’s conclusions, to improve health among our country’s kids. This is not much time to unravel decades of cumulative changes to agricultural, nutritional, food, medical, and pharmaceutical policies that led to America having one of the unhealthiest populations in an advanced country.
Kennedy will be at the helm of this gargantuan task. It may seem impossible, but this is exactly what he promised to deliver and, more importantly, asked to do. In a heartfelt speech just after his confirmation, Kennedy stated that for 20 years he awoke every day, got on his knees, and prayed that God would put him in a position to end the childhood chronic disease epidemic in America. That day has come, and he now has an army of support to help him. Godspeed, Secretary.
Jesus Christ is King
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