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By Aaron E. Carroll
Dr. Carroll is the president and chief executive of AcademyHealth, a nonpartisan group that advances evidence-based health policy.
Americans are frustrated with health care, and rightly so. It’s expensive, confusing and often unfair. I’ve written about its flaws for years. But as calls grow to burn it all down, we risk losing the very parts that are working.
Critics claim the United States hasn’t made progress, that things used to be better, and that our institutions are failing us. In a hearing in Washington on Thursday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, said, “We are the sickest country in the world.” The Trump administration is using these as excuses to demolish what is best about America’s health and science infrastructure. It’s already eliminated billions of dollars in lifesaving research and proposed a budget that would mean even steeper cuts to public health and medical research. Just last week, Susan Monarez, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was ousted after clashing with Mr. Kennedy over vaccine restrictions, prompting four senior officials to resign in protest. It’s the latest sign of ideology displacing science at the very agency charged with protecting public health.
