This statement is about Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. We call him RFK Jr. for short. RFK Jr. is the Secretary (leader) of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS is the part of the government in charge of health care.
RFK Jr. has spent the past week speaking to Congress. Many of the things he said to Congress were lies. He said that disabled people are getting community services we don’t need. He spread false ideas about autism and about vaccines. And he showed that he knows nothing about how disability services get paid for.
What RFK Jr. said to Congress shows that he does not understand how Medicaid works. 8.4 million older adults and people with disabilities use Medicaid services to help with their everyday lives. These services are called Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS). HCBS help disabled people live in our communities instead of nursing homes and institutions.
RFK Jr. made it sound like he thinks HCBS is a waste of money. HCBS can be used to help someone get groceries or to drive someone to the doctor. RFK Jr. said this is something your family used to do. Family members still do these things. But people who are not family members still need to be paid to do these things. And if family members have to leave their job to support someone with a disability, they should get paid too. That makes sure people with disabilities can live in the community instead of institutions.
RFK Jr. does not seem to care about helping people with disabilities to live in our communities. He said that many workers and families who help with HCBS lie about if they’re actually giving people HCBS. That is not true. The disability community is hurt by what RFK Jr. says and how he ignores our needs.
RFK Jr. lied about trying to cut money for programs that support people with disabilities, like Medicaid. He said that there are no cuts to Medicaid, but that’s a lie. HHS is also trying to cut many other programs that help people with disabilities.
RFK Jr. also spread a lot of lies about autism. RFK Jr. still thinks that taking acetaminophen (tylenol) while pregnant can make a baby autistic. Congress talked about a study that showed this is not true, but RFK Jr. didn’t care.
One Congresswoman asked RFK Jr. to apologize for saying autism hurts families. But RFK did not apologize. Instead, he said that only autistic people who need a lot of support hurt their families. This is not true. Autistic people do not hurt families. And all autistic people deserve to have rights.
Lastly, RFK Jr. said that he is not anti-vaccine and never was. But he has said things that are anti-vaccine for 20 years. And he is still trying to change the rules about vaccines so people get less vaccines.
RFK Jr. says he wants to help people with disabilities. But the things he said to Congress show he does not care about us. RFK Jr. should not be the Secretary of HHS. He should quit his job, or Congress should make him leave his job.