Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may or may not be confirmed by the Senate to be Secretary of Health and Human Services.
He has had a long and complicated life. It was shaped in part by the assassinations of his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and his father, Senator Robert Kennedy. Imagine your uncle was killed when you were nine years old, and you were immersed in a week of televised anguish as the entire nation mourned his death. Then imagine your father was killed five years later, and you had to live through another wave of heartbreak.
It’s understandable that there are aspects of Robert F. Kennedy’s background that are messy.
Yet, today, he is an extraordinary, charismatic figure who has done a great service for America by reigniting a fundamental debate about how to make America healthy again.
In 2003, I wrote a book with Anne Woodbury called “Saving Lives and Saving Money.” The title was designed to communicate an important point. First, you must save lives—then you can save money. I argued that health is a moral issue—and money is secondary to it.
Tragically, the system has evolved in the opposite direction. An analysis of the current system would aptly be titled “Follow the Money.” Doctors are subordinated to bureaucrats. Patients are subordinated to rules and regulations. The consolidation of hospitals, doctor groups, the insurance system, pharmacy benefit managers, and other aspects of the health system have raised costs, lowered focus on patients, and made the system more ossified and unmanageable.
Health lobbyists spend more money in Washington than giant defense corporations (there’s an estimated $750 million a year in health-related lobbying).
The last 50 years have seen health reform focused on policy symptoms rather than the core challenges of the profoundly misfocused and ill-designed system.
Politicians have prioritized reforming insurance and finance. Those are not health care. Even focusing on health care in its current state is a mistake, because health care is not health. Today, we have a sick-care system, not a health care system.
The great contribution of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been to remind us that we really care about health. We want Americans to have the longest possible lives, with the best possible health. We want to achieve this with a convenient, affordable system that helps us when we become ill or have an accident requiring medical attention.
More than any other public figure, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has raised the larger issue of the sick-care system’s failure. America spends more on sick-care, and Americans have gotten sicker. Our lifespans have begun to get shorter after centuries of growth. This is because our current health system is so unhealthy.
If we stop focusing on insurance and sick-care—and instead focus on what sustains health and long life—we will get dramatic results. The population will be healthier and the system will be less expensive. We will save lives and money.
There is exciting evidence that new knowledge about the human body could potentially lead to dramatically longer and healthier lives.
Dr. Mike Roizen of the Cleveland Clinics estimates that, with the right approaches, the average 20-year-old today should be able to live to 115—with the vigor and health of a 60-year-old. We work with the Alliance for Longevity Initiatives, which advocates rethinking chronic disease management. Developing the biology necessary for chronic disease avoidance could make people healthier and easily create the biggest potential savings in health costs.
If Robert F. Kennedy Jr. can launch a meaningful national focus on health rather than sickness—and prevention rather than treatment—he will spur one of the great revolutions we need to make America healthy again.
Every citizen should contact their senators and demand Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation. Our lives, health, and finances will all improve if he can lead a national debate and force change on our deeply broken health care system.
