RFK Jr. cuts jobs at minority health offices at HHS

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s overhaul of the Department of Health and Human Services involves deep cuts to several divisions that help protect and improve the health of minority and underserved populations and eliminate health disparities in the U.S., CNBC has learned.

Kennedy, the Health and Human Services secretary, has gutted at least seven minority health offices across the department, according to people familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity to speak freely. HHS has laid off a significant share of workers at those offices, or in some cases all of them, along with their directors, the people said.

The affected units include the HHS Office of Minority Health and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, or NIMHD. The cuts also hit offices with similar functions at the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, according to the people. 

Health policy experts told CNBC that deep cuts to those divisions could widen existing health disparities in the U.S., undoing years of progress toward addressing them. Over time, that could worsen health outcomes for already underserved groups, threaten overall public health, strain the U.S. health-care system and drive up health-care costs. 

“It will have negative health impacts, obviously, for groups that they’re focused on, so racial and ethnic minorities, but I think what gets missed in the story is it ultimately impacts all of us, no matter what your background is,” Dr. Stephanie Ettinger De Cuba, research professor of health law, policy and management at Boston University, told CNBC. 

“It’s not a zero-sum game. So I think that’s what is deeply disturbing to me, as we are going to see people get hurt,” she said. “Decimating or cutting staff from these offices ultimately makes it worse for everyone.”

The Trump administration can’t shutter the affected offices entirely, which would be against the law since they were authorized by the Affordable Care Act more than a decade ago, the people said. The exact fate of each office and the NIH institute is unclear, they added. 

The administration likely hopes to at least “narrow the scope” of what NIMHD and the agency offices do, curtailing their authority and limiting resources, said Brandyn Churchill, professor of public administration and policy at American University. 

The cuts come as health disparities remain a major challenge in the U.S., affecting not only people of color but also rural residents, low-income communities and individuals with disabilities, among several other groups. These communities often face worse health outcomes – such as lower life expectancy and higher rates of infant mortality and chronic disease – and more limited access to care and other resources than the U.S. population as a whole. 

The Covid-19 pandemic deepened many of these gaps, highlighting how the long U.S. history of exclusionary policies and systemic issues such as poverty and racism contribute to unequal health outcomes across the country. 

Health policy experts stress that addressing those disparities leads to stronger overall public health, as healthier communities improve outcomes for everyone. It could also relieve a huge economic burden on the U.S: a 2023 study funded by NIMHD found that racial and ethnic health disparities cost the U.S. economy $451 billion in 2018.  

Kennedy is consolidating divisions and slashing 10,000 jobs at HHS, a $1.7 trillion agency that oversees vaccines and other medicines, scientific research, public health infrastructure, pandemic preparedness, and food and tobacco products. HHS also manages government-funded health care for millions of Americans – including seniors, disabled people and lower-income patients who rely on Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act’s markets.

Kennedy plans to create a new HHS agency called the Administration for a Healthy America, which will combine several existing offices. That includes HRSA, SAMHSA, the Office of the Assistant Secretary…