In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread. Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.
A number of posts discussed Trump's support for the discredited notion.
Another leading anti-vaxxer is presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. He has repeatedly compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust. Rolling Stone and Salon retracted an RFK article linking vaccines to autism. He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.
He is now Trump's nominee to head HHS.
Please stop whatever you are doing and watch this.
— Otto English (@Otto_English) January 29, 2025
The charlatan snake oil merchant RFK on the ropes as his very own words become knockout blows.pic.twitter.com/pcaUEPJgW0
He flip-flopped on vaccines. His answers on the health care system, particularly Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, were sloppy.
He got the programs mixed up. He got the numbers mixed up. He got the financing mixed up.
To put it mildly, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation hearing today to become Health and Human Services secretary didn’t exactly inspire confidence.
Many of us who write about or work in health care occasionally say Medicare when we mean Medicaid — but we catch ourselves and fix it. We don’t get it wrong again and again through a three-plus hour hearing when we’re shooting for the top health job in the country.
Between them, Medicare, Medicaid and the ACA cover somewhere around 170 million Americans — that’s roughly a third of the U.S. population. Oversight and regulation of those government health systems is under the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Trump wants Dr. Mehmet Oz to run that. But CMS is part of HHS. As secretary, Kennedy would be atop it all.
Yet he got them all jumbled up — and said they don’t work. And that everyone hates them.
In one rambling answer, Kennedy said Medicare is paid for by employer taxes (in fact, it’s employer taxes, employee taxes, premiums, deductibles and tax dollars). He said Medicaid is “fully-paid for by the federal government” (no, it’s split with the states.).
“Medicaid is not working for Americans,” he continued. “It is specifically not working for the target population. Most Americans like myself are — I’m on Medicare Advantage and I’m very happy with it. For most people, Medicaid is not working. The premiums are too high. The deductibles are too high. The networks are narrow. The best doctors will not accept it. The best hospitals will not accept it. The poorest Americans are being robbed.”
Medicare Advantage has nothing to do with Medicaid. States cannot charge the poorest people Medicaid premiums, and they can impose only very modest costs on people a little further up the income chain. Kennedy is right, though, that a lot of doctors won’t take it because payment is low. Cutting it, as Republicans hope to do, won’t fix that.
