Trump names RFK Jr. to health cabinet post | ABS-CBN News

President-elect Donald Trump announced on Thursday he has selected Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental activist who has spread misinformation on vaccines, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, the United States' top health agency. Kennedy ran for president in this year's election as an independent before dropping out in August and endorsing Trump in exchange for a role in the Republican's administration. The Department of Health and Human Services oversees the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and the massive Medicare and Medicaid Services programs, which provide health coverage for the poor, those aged 65 and older, and the disabled. Medicaid and Medicare's tens of millions of enrollees mean HHS had a $3.09 trillion budget for fiscal year 2024, representing 22.8% of the US federal budget. Kennedy, the son and nephew of two titans of Democratic politics, has been a part of Trump's transition team and has been reviewing candidate resumes for the top jobs at US health agencies. Over posts on social media platform X and interviews in recent weeks, Kennedy has indicated his priorities include addressing what he calls the "chronic disease epidemic" of conditions including obesity, diabetes and autism, and reducing chemicals in food. Despite high levels of spending on healthcare and pharmaceuticals, Americans are unhealthier than their peers in wealthy countries around world, according to a report from the Commonwealth Fund in 2023. For more ABS-CBN News, click the link below: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgyY1WylJUmgG2ln-vtKXb-oLlGEZc3sR Check out the latest news on upcoming Halalan 2022 here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgyY1WylJUmiGdpGgIvyNSlUsnCKyOzAM To watch the latest updates on COVID-19, click the link below: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgyY1WylJUmgUjPkc730KnTVICyQU6gBf Subscribe to the ABS-CBN News channel! - http://bit.ly/TheABSCBNNews Watch the full episodes of TV Patrol on iWantTFC: http://bit.ly/TVPatrol-iWantTFC Visit our website at http://news.abs-cbn.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abscbnNEWS Twitter: https://twitter.com/abscbnnews #DonaldTrump #LatestNews #ABSCBNNews