Kennedy Defends His Record on Measles, Prior Auth in Traditional Medicare

At House hearings on Thursday, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. downplayed the nation’s massive measles outbreaks and defended the expansion of prior authorization into traditional Medicare under his watch.

During the Ways and Means Committee hearing to address the Trump administration’s fiscal year 2027 budget, which calls for a 12% cut to HHS, Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.) pointed to the rapid rise in measles cases in the U.S. under Kennedy.

Referencing the death of an unvaccinated school-age child in the Texas outbreak last year — the first death from measles in the U.S. in a decade — Sánchez asked Kennedy if he agreed with the majority of doctors that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine “could have saved that child’s life?”

“It’s possible, certainly,” Kennedy said.

Sánchez noted that fewer than 300 cases in 2024 under the Biden administration “ballooned” to more than 2,000 cases in 2025. This figure could surpass 6,000 cases in 2026 should the trajectory in the first few months of the year persist, she added, and CDC data show that the vast majority of kids who died from flu this season were unvaccinated.

“The anti-vaccine rhetoric you ran on and the anti-vaccine actions you have taken over the last year clearly correlate with the dramatic increases in preventable diseases,” Sánchez said. “As a mother, this horrifies me.”

She questioned Kennedy about ending pro-vaccine messaging campaigns at the CDC.

In response, Kennedy pointed out that “we’ve done better at preventing measles cases than any country in the world,” pointing to higher case counts in Mexico and Canada.

Measles came up again during a second House hearing on Thursday featuring Kennedy — part of a marathon on Capitol Hill to ostensibly review the HHS budget.

During the Appropriations Committee hearing, Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) asked Kennedy whether he believes the MMR vaccine is safe.

“Yes, for most people,” Kennedy responded.

“Safer than getting measles?” Dean further pressed.

“Yes,” he said. Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist before becoming the nation’s top health official, has previously falsely claimed that the MMR shot causes deaths “every year” and promoted wild claims that natural infection may protect against cancer.

Dean said she was “disturbed” that the MMR vaccination rate has fallen has fallen “well below the 95% threshold needed to prevent outbreaks such as we are seeing in this country, like we have not seen in decades.”

“You do not have the courage to allow me to reply,” Kennedy snapped back in the testy exchange. “Eighty percent of those [cases] are people who are over 5. They have nothing to do with me. Vaccination rates dropped after COVID because of mismanagement.”

Prior Authorization in Traditional Medicare

On the expansion of prior authorization in traditional Medicare, Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) noted during the Ways and Means Committee hearing that “people are being denied care across our state right now.”

Last year, CMS announced an experimental model, known as WISeR (Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction), aimed at streamlining prior authorizations under traditional Medicare in six states, including Washington, by allowing for-profit companies to use artificial intelligence to review and deny Medicare claims. Experts have expressed concern that the model would result in more delays in care.

DelBene told the story of Joanne, a Medicare patient in Washington, who has a herniated disc that is pinching her sciatic nerve and causing “immense pain down the right side of her body.” Though Joanne’s doctor prescribed her an injection that would help to relieve the pain, she has been waiting for approval for over 6 weeks. During this time, Joanne has been using crutches or a wheelchair, and has fallen multiple times, DelBene said.

Services subject to prior authorization under the WISeR model include — but are not limited to — skin and tissue substitutes, nerve stimulator implants, and knee arthroscopy for osteoarthritis.

Kennedy highlighted the importance of identifying billions of dollars worth of fraud, such as what’s been documented with skin and tissue substitutes, but reiterated that it is equally important not to pit patients and their doctors against massive insurance companies. He told DelBene that he would address a letter she had sent to CMS expressing her concerns about the WISeR model.

Kennedy Denies Talking About Black Kids Being ‘Re-Parented’

Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) turned the discussion to previous comments that she said Kennedy had made in July 2024 on a podcast about the use of attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medications among Black children.

“Every Black kid is now just standard put on Adderall, SSRIs [selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors], benzos [benzodiazepines], which are known to induce violence,” Kennedy said on the podcast. “And those kids are going to have a chance to go somewhere and get re-parented.”

Sewell asked Kennedy whether he had ever re-parented a Black child.

“I don’t even know what that phrase means,” Kennedy said, denying he had made the remarks.

When Sewell further pressed him, pointing out that the comments were suggesting that the federal government take Black children away from their families, Kennedy replied, “You’re just making stuff up.”

“I am absolutely not making this up,” Sewell said.

A recording of the podcast shows he made the comments during a conversation about free rehabilitation facilities he was proposing opening at the time in rural areas around the country.

HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said Kennedy before joining the administration was referring to spaces where young people facing alienation, mental health challenges and despair could get re-parented, which she said was a psychotherapy term for “developing the emotional regulation, discipline, boundaries, and self-worth that may not have been established in childhood.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting to this story.