Trump Must Take Back Control of Our Health Agencies From Corporate Influence
COMMENTARY
The American people elected President Donald Trump to shake up America’s health care system.
Now Trump’s back in charge, and he’s putting outsiders at the helm of America’s top health care agencies. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the new secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, and Dr. Marty Makary has been nominated to lead the Food and Drug Administration. They aren’t establishment bureaucrats. They’re reformers, so they must take on the entrenched interests that have profited off America’s declining health for too long.
They can start by recognizing that the United States spends more on health care than any other country — yet our life expectancy is declining and chronic disease is skyrocketing.
How is it possible that the richest nation on Earth with the most advanced medical technology still suffers the worst health outcomes in the developed world?
Perhaps it’s because the system isn’t built to keep us healthy — it’s built to keep us dependent. Large food producers flood the market with ultra-processed, addictive foods that fuel chronic disease, while pharmaceutical companies use our health agencies to help them improve their bottom line at the expense of our health.
Over the past few decades, food companies have added harmful ingredients and chemicals to our food to improve their bottom line. Studies show that the American diet — high in seed oils, refined sugars, artificial colors and preservatives — causes higher mortality rates. Yet, while European countries have banned many harmful additives, food lobbyists here at home prevent the FDA from doing so.
As HHS secretary, Kennedy must end the food industry’s influence and strengthen food safety to keep us safe and healthy.
While they take on the food industry, Trump’s new health officials also need to take on large pharmaceutical companies, which thrive by creating lifelong patients. The opioid crisis proved just how far they’ll go for profit. These companies captured the FDA through lobbying and a revolving door between industry and government.
They pushed addictive opioids for profit while downplaying risks. The FDA ignored warnings, approved misleading marketing and failed to regulate high-dose opioids. As overdoses soared, pharmaceutical companies profited. The opioid crisis is only one of many examples of the FDA’s neglect. If confirmed, Makary should end business as usual within the FDA and topple the pharmaceutical industry’s vast influence over prescription drug laws.
Makary should also examine any FDA regulations the industry may have influenced. For example, pharmaceutical companies have lobbied the FDA to enact two proposed rules limiting access to printed prescribing information and patient medication information — data pharmacists and their patients need to understand and correctly take prescription medications — to save money on printing costs. The regulations would help pharmaceutical companies save money, but they would make it harder for pharmacists and patients to access important medication information.
Makary must stand firm against these and other profiteering efforts.
Makary has signaled that he would reverse the FDA status quo as a rubber stamp for the pharmaceutical industry. That’s exactly what we need now because both parties have let health care giants control Washington for decades.
I hope Trump’s picks to lead our health agencies restore integrity to health care policy and regulation so America can finally see lower costs, fewer preventable diseases and an end to corporate rule over medicine and nutrition.
Sam Barke is the former policy advisor to the undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture under President Donald Trump and former Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. He can be found on his website.
