28-06-2025
Federal Advisory Panels' Powers Just Got a Boost
So, it turns out to be a matter of some constitutional importance that the secretary of Health and Human Services has the power to fire the members of those pesky advisory committees whose recommendations on medical treatments can become binding on health insurers. Or so the Supreme Court said on Friday.
No, the case in question wasn't about the vaccine advisory group that Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently gutted. (We'll get back to that one.) The decision in Kennedy v. Braidwood Management, Inc., involved a different group, the US Preventive Services Task Force. Under the Affordable Care Act, most health insurers are required to cover that group's top recommended preventive services. The plaintiffs in Braidwood, who are covered because they self-insure, argued that the grant of binding authority to the task force was unconstitutional. 1
