“What you don’t want to eat is donuts. No donuts.” This could be gentle advice that food-conscious HHS Secretary Kennedy offers to President Trump at Cabinet meetings. Instead, it is advice given by Arnold Schwarzenegger in his cameo in the 1993 movie Dave to Kevin Cline who plays the President of the United States. There were lots of cameos in the movie Dave, including former U.S. Senator Alan Simpson (R-WY) who died last Friday. As could be expected from Senator Simpson, who had a great, caustic wit, he delivered a great line in the movie that I suspect he ad-libbed. I explain how this relates to health policy in the One Thoughtful Paragraph.
I refrained, somewhat, from adding caustic wit to this week’s news highlights:
- After a federal judge ruled that the Trump Administration needed to rehire terminated probationary employees, CISA (the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) is struggling to find the contact information for some of the 130 employees in its agency. The cybersecurity agency posted a notice asking those who believe they’ve been affected to send their information via email, and confirmed any rehired employees would be placed on administrative leave with full pay and benefits.
- Industry groups responded to the Trump Administration’s request for input on a federal AI Action Plan by emphasizing the need for clear and flexible regulations. One group, The Health Innovation Alliance (HIA), argued that “a one-size-fits-all approach to health care AI does not work” and released a report outlining how different technologies are currently deployed to improve patient care and lower costs.
- Dr. Mehmet Oz expressed support for AI during his Senate confirmation hearing to lead CMS, highlighting its potential to reduce administrative burdens, streamline prior authorization, and improve care denials. Read Maverick’s summary of Dr. Oz’s hearing here.
“The guy’s out to lunch. The lights are on but no one is home down there.” This is Senator Simpson’s line in the movie Dave, after the fictitious president announces that the new mission of the federal government is to get every American a job. If you haven’t seen it, Dave is a little gem of a movie about what an ordinary guy would do if he was suddenly thrust into the role of leader of the free world. After reading that Senator Simpson died, I wondered what he would have thought about President Trump’s latest announcements. (It is pretty clear what he would think after reading – like I just did – his contribution to Lessons and Legacies, a collection of farewell addresses by the thirteen U.S. senators who voluntarily retired in 1996.) In particular, President Trump’s decision to fire two FTC Commissioners – eliminating the political balance of power of the independent agency that enforces antitrust and consumer protection laws. I think this one would have likely garnered the same “out to lunch” reaction from Senator Simpson. Maverick Health Policy follows the FTC’s work closely because it serves as one of the few privacy guardians of the private health information collected and managed on apps and digital devices that do not fall under the purview of HIPAA. One of the fired commissioners was the primary privacy expert at the FTC. Given our heavy emphasis on tech and privacy/security threats in the healthcare sector (see the news we just highlighted above), this decision is at least out to lunch. It is funny the way cinema is so often a predictor of real life. In the movie Dave, Kevin Kline, playing a POTUS who is caught in a scandal, addresses a joint session of Congress saying: “I’m the President, and as they say, the buck stops here. So, I take full responsibility for each one of my illegal actions.”
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