“Where are the leaders of the land? Where is the king who runs this show?” This is what President Trump heard in the dialogue of Les Misérables last night when he attended the musical at the Kennedy Center. Les Misérables may be the appropriate backdrop for the “No Kings” rebellion and show of military force in L.A., but it is not the right musical to set the scene for what is happening this week in health policy. There are new leaders at HHS and industry that are running the health policy show, and I explain which movie will work better for that in the One Thoughtful Paragraph.
Some other new kings in town, or kings who are leaving:
- Newest King of HHS: Jim O’Neill was sworn in as Deputy Secretary of HHS on June 9, 2025. He previously held HHS leadership roles during the G.W. Bush presidency. He will help oversee agency operations and lead innovation efforts focused on AI, emerging technologies, and system modernization.
- New King of the AMA: Bobby Mukkamala, MD is the 180th President of the AMA. During his inauguration speech, Dr. Mukkamala spoke about his recent brain tumor diagnosis, concerns over biomedical research funding cuts, and support for federal insurance programs.
- Long live the King of the for-profit hospitals: Chip Kahn is retiring as CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals at the end of 2025 after 24 years leading the organization.
“The real magic of the pants was in somehow holding us together when it felt like nothing would ever be the same again.” This is dialogue from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, a movie about four girls who bond over childhood’s trials and tribulations and one teenage shopping day when they find a magical pair of jeans that fits all of them perfectly. When they go their separate ways one summer, they mail the jeans to each other to keep their sisterhood bond strong. This is what I thought of when I heard that Oracle hired a whole set of health policy sisters: Seema Verma, Stacy Amin, Aliza Silver, and now Alexandra Mugge. These ladies wear the pants, for sure, on how to modernize the healthcare industry. As we are so frequently talking about the “bros” running HHS, it seemed worth mentioning that it is the ladies who are making things happen in at least one major company. We look forward to reading Oracle’s response to the CMS RFI on Improving Technology in Medicare that is due on Monday. I suspect like all of us working on the submissions to the RFI this week, the Oracle sisters said to each other what one character said in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: “I’m afraid of time. And not having enough of it.”
