The Trump administration on Wednesday fired two of its top three leaders of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a panel of experts that determines what medical screenings and procedures must be covered by health insurance companies at no cost.
The two leaders, John Wong and Esa Davis, were fired from their positions as vice chairs on the critical health insurance coverage panel this month by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., according to termination letters obtained by the Washington Examiner.
Recommended Stories
The USPSTF was created in the 1980s but has in recent decades been tasked with determining what preventive health services must be fully covered by insurance companies under Obamacare rules.
The task force is authorized by Congress to assess scientific evidence and make recommendations on insurance coverage for a wide range of medical services, from mammograms and colonoscopies to depression screenings and HIV prophylaxis.
But health policy experts and industry leaders have speculated for more than a year that Kennedy has been angling to mold the task force to serve his policy objectives, such as potentially limiting insurance coverage for routine vaccinations.
Last year, Kennedy unilaterally disbanded and reconstituted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which has since made sweeping changes to restrict vaccine recommendations for adults and children.
The preventive services task force has not met since March, and other scheduled meetings have been postponed indefinitely.
USPSTF is also legally required to report to Congress annually to highlight evidence in gaps that help set priorities for research funding, but the panel did not produce a report for 2025.
The termination letters to Wong and Davis, signed by Kennedy, said the decision came after review of the task force appointments “to ensure clarity, continuity, and confidence in the Department’s exercise of its appointment and supervisory responsibilities, and to protect the integrity of the Task Force’s work.”
Kennedy wrote that the terminations were made “to avoid uncertainty that could jeopardize the validity of future Task Force actions.”
The secretary said in the letters that the firings were “unrelated to [their] performance or many years of dedicated service” and ought not to be “understood as removal based on [their] leadership or contributions.”
Wong is a professor at Tufts University and a primary care physician, and Davis is a professor at the University of Maryland and a primary care physician.
SENATE DEMOCRATS WANT HOME HEALTH FOR MEDICARE COME 2028
Wong’s term was slated to last until March 2027, and Davis’s term was scheduled to end in March 2028. The news of the firing was first reported by the New York Times.
