Less than 1% of agency spending goes to federal health workers

Recently, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made headlines by defending his decision to terminate thousands of employees in his department.

Last week, he announced plans to eliminate 10,000 jobs, in addition to the 10,000 positions cut during the early days of the Trump administration.

Kennedy referred to the Department of Health and Human Services as “the largest agency in the government, twice the size of the Pentagon, with a budget of $1.9 trillion.” News Nation. He suggested that the department does little to enhance the health of Americans.

Despite having a discretionary budget of around $850 billion, HHS spends more than the Department of Defense. However, experts argue that the majority of the HHS budget is not allocated to staff expenses.

According to three budget experts, a small fraction of the federal health agency budget goes towards officials’ salaries. This includes FDA staff, CDC, and NIH.

The majority of funds are spent on Medicare and Medicaid for elderly and low-income individuals, respectively. These funds support private insurance plans, hospitals, clinics, pharmaceutical companies, and more.

Melinda Bunting, a health policy professor, stated that HHS staff costs represent less than 1% of the department’s budget, despite overall spending increases.

Bobby Cogan, from the Center for Progress in America, criticized Kennedy’s depiction of HHS budgeting as “misleading.”

Kogan argued that the focus should be on the aging population, not misleading budget claims. HHS seeks to reduce federal spending by $1.8 billion annually through workforce cuts.

Another HHS institution, the administration for children and families, allocates billions to programs like Head Start and welfare support.

Christounner, from the Responsible Federal Budget Committee, estimated HHS staff costs to be less than 1% of spending, accounting for highly qualified health professionals.

While the Trump administration has focused on Medicare fraud, Congress is exploring potential fraud within Medicare Advantage Plans, involving hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Hundreds of Billions Annual dollars.