Letter to Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., The US Department of Health and Human Services

Re: The American healthcare delivery system teeters on the edge of irreversible damage, yet the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) strategy ignores the growing distrust of the very people it aims to serve.

September 5, 2025

Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

The US Department of Health and Human Services

Hubert H. Humphrey Building

200 Independence Avenue, SW

Washington, DC 20201

Re: The American healthcare delivery system teeters on the edge of irreversible damage, yet the MAHA strategy ignores the growing distrust of the very people it aims to serve.

Dear Secretary Kennedy,

I am a retired board-certified family physician and healthcare executive with over 4 decades of professional work in clinical practice and healthcare service delivery administration.

Over the past eight months, I have become gravely concerned that the American healthcare delivery system is on the verge of sustaining irreversible damage. The accelerating disconnect between the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) strategy and the realities facing the American people poses an alarming threat that cannot be ignored.

I will not dwell on the design or implementation of the Department of Health and Human Services’ MAHA strategy as the roadmap for improving the nation’s health; that is not where a meaningful debate should begin. What I cannot overlook, however, is the hubris and arrogance now shaping the emerging fault lines between HHS, Congress, the American scientific and medical community, and the public-at-large—divisions that threaten to undermine both trust and effective leadership, management, and governance in our great healthcare delivery system.

There is little doubt that transparency, trust, and truthfulness have eroded in our post-pandemic society—not only in the United States, but globally. Against this backdrop, contentious congressional hearings and the mass dismissal of career professionals within HHS send a dangerous signal: the very agency charged with safeguarding the health and well-being of all Americans is deepening the divide between our most vulnerable citizens and the high-quality, accessible care they need. If HHS shows so little regard for its own dedicated workforce, how can the public—especially those most marginalized—believe it will care for them?

Mr. Kennedy, I encourage you to pause and consider this question with me: Can we identify the following foundational principles as common ground and a shared starting point for building a healthier America?

• Respect for evidence: Recognizing the scientific and medical communities’ findings on the primary existential threats and direct causes of poor health and well-being among Americans.

• Commitment to truth: Upholding empirically derived, evidence-based scientific inquiry as the non-negotiable gold standard for medical education, practice, research, and policy—essential for countering misinformation and disinformation.

• Strengthening primary care: Acknowledging that primary health care is the cornerstone of every great healthcare delivery system worldwide, and that the United States must significantly increase its investment in people, processes, and technology in this area.

• Shared frameworks: Accepting proven models such as the WHO Building Blocks as necessary to achieve a fully integrated, people-centered system of essential and sustainable healthcare services and medicine.

• Integration of functions: Affirming that traditional medical care, public health interventions, and community-based services must work together across five interconnected functions: health prevention, health protection, health promotion, disease surveillance and population health management, and emergency preparedness, resilience, and rapid response.

• Whole Health vision: Supporting a Whole Health model of person-centered care across the full life course—from pre-conception through death—as a pathway to transform the American healthcare system, extend individual health span, and achieve the Sextuple Aim (the Triple Aim plus provider well-being, health equity, and planetary health).

• Equity for all: Committing to the principle that no American’s health and well-being should be determined by their zip code.

These are not abstract ideals—they are the critical test of whether we will overcome divisive rhetoric and deliver a healthcare system that genuinely protects and serves every American, without exception.

Mr. Kennedy, let me ask you directly: Why shouldn’t a national health agenda like MAHA begin with common ground among all stakeholders in the health sector? The reality is clear—without that shared foundation, we cannot take the moral and ethical path required to rebuild trust. And trust is essential: trust that every American, without exception, will have access to the same high-quality, essential healthcare services and medicines. The question, then, is whether you are prepared to commit to that path.

Let me close with a request, Mr. Kennedy: I urge you and your leadership team to show the moral courage to step beyond the Washington, D.C. Beltway and embark on a multi-state listening tour—rather than presenting MAHA as the only path to a healthier nation. It is no small ask, but it is a necessary one if the voices of the marginalized and vulnerable are truly to be heard.

Civil exchange—and even civil disobedience—are core to our democracy. Ignoring those who challenge a national healthcare strategy that has not been openly and rigorously vetted will only accelerate chaos, deepen division, and inflame hate across the country. The only responsible path forward is to open the process—invite scrutiny, welcome dissent, and build legitimacy through genuine public engagement.

With respect, humility, and hope,

Dale J. Block, MD MBA